Superman: Sons of the Sun Book One
by creativerealms82
Summary: An Elseworlds what if style Superman story about a Superman who grew up as the son of a billionaire rather then a farmer and whose brother is Lex Luthor. As Kent Luthor finds his place in the world and Lex tries to find out what his father Lionel was hiding from him before his death.
1. Prologue

**Book One**

**The Men who look down on the World**

**Prologue**

One hundred and twenty five Earth years ago there was a great silence in the universe. All life on a planet was extinguished in great explosion. A glorious civilization was over in the blink of an eye and the whole population of that planet, roughly two billion were dead just as suddenly. The planet Krypton, one of the most advanced worlds in the galaxy was gone, a victim of it's own arrogance. A large portion of their population could have been saved if they only listened to the one man who knew what was going to happen. If only they had listened to Jor El.

For all it's advancements Krypton was an isolated planet. They had the capability for space travel but all space programs and colonies were long since disbanded and the whole population had been on it's surface for decades. The people of Krypton saw themselves as the greatest race in the cosmos and contact with other space traveling races never went well. Kryptonians believed they were superior to all other races. For that reason they stopped leaving their planet and set up defenses to destroy all non Kryptonian ships. Krypton was a race of men and woman who looked down on all other life.

What the people of Krypton did not know was that their planet was a time bomb waiting to explode. Their planet's core composed of multiple radioactive and unstable compounds, and a reaction that has been slowly building for over millions of years was reaching a critical point. For the longest time the chemicals were balanced and the planet was safe but then came the wars. Krypton had about a hundred years of nearly endless war called the Age of Chaos. While the Age of Chaos ended over five hundred years ago waste from these wars slowly seeped into the core and upset the balance.

The additional radiation from wars long past started to shake the planet foundation. As a result the planet of Krypton started to suffer from environmental disasters such as earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, volcanoes and more that grew worse over time. After a while these things were ignored by the people of Krypton as natural occurrences. Because of the general population's high regard of their superiority they believed their great civilization would never end. A few scientists out of curiosity tried to figure out the cause of the disturbances though only one came up with a prophecy of doom. That was Jor El of the Science Council.

Jor El had gone to farther lengths then other scientists. Most of them found what they wanted to see for the benefit of their people, Jor El wanted to know the absolute truth and he found it. He discovered not only that Krypton becoming more unstable by the day but realized his people only had weeks before the inevitable destruction. Jor El thought of only one way to save his people and brought the plan up to the other members of the council. To temporarily transfer entire population of Krypton into the Phantom Zone while one trusted man travels to a new world and release his people on their new home.

Jor El's plan was ridiculed, the idea of sending the whole planet's population into a zone used for the world's worst criminals was ridiculous. And to rely on one person? What if that person did not make it to another world? Besides Jor El's findings were not conclusive in the eyes of the council. There were too many variables he might have gotten wrong. No one wanted to believe the planet was going to be destroyed and Jor El was removed from office. He was no longer seen fit to be a member of the ruling council of Krypton.

Jor El's life, what little time was left of it anyway was ruined. His reputation was shattered, even his peers and closest friends no longer talked to him. Only his wife supported him, believed in him and trusted his judgment. Jor El worked tirelessly to create a shuttle for his wife and new born child. He knew he could not create one large enough for all three of them, and someone needed to launch the shuttle. While he was working on the shuttle the environmental disturbances of Krypton increased, the quakes grew worse and more violent, the tidal waves took whole coastal cities, and new volcanoes were appearing out of no where. Krypton was running out of time, and Jor El knew that the end had came.

When he was about to sent off the shuttle the final quake hit, the planet killer. He asked for his wife Lara to enter the shuttle but she refused, she put their child Kal El into the shuttle and then stood by her husband as he sent the shuttle off into space. Their new born son, and a depository of Kryptonian history flew away from the planet as a great green explosion rocked the core and in a flash of light Krypton was gone. One of the greatest civilizations in the universe was snuffed out due to their own ignorance, the sole survivor a baby who may never know where he came from.

The small shuttle was headed to a populated planet. Jor El had discovered a planet on a distant star with lifeforms that look almost identical to Kryptonians. A planet called Earth the third planet of a star called Sol, a primitive planet by Kryptonian technological standards, and one rotating a yellow sun. It is known that Kryptonians, when they absorb the radiation of a yellow sun, gain great powers, their strength, speed, agility, and durability are increased hundreds of times over. Also they gain other powers like super vision and icy breath. Jor El chose Earth for his son because there he can make a great impact. There he can rule if he wanted to, and make Earth a great world that rivaled Krypton at it's peak.

As the ship passed though the explosion of the planet Krypton some of the fragments of the planet, glowing radioactive rocks, traveled along with the ship. This is do to the magnetic ion engine powering the ship on it's flight to Earth.

The infant's ship traveled on a path that was least likely to be spotted by a technologically advanced planet or a space travel capable race. So the flight was for the most part was uneventful but there was one unexpected visitor. The ship's path took it close to the planet Colu, an advanced but isolated world. Once a planet that valued knowledge a recent change in government sent the old emperor, or his digitized memory anyway into space the moment he died. Emperor Vril Dox was replaced by the Computer Tyrants as Colu's ruling body. The digitized memory of Vril Dox was rotating the planet in an endless orbit when the magnetic field of Kal El's ship drew the probe to it, connecting the young baby's fate with that of the Emperor of knowledge.

With Vril Dox's digital mind in tow and surrounded by thousands of fragments of the dead planet Krypton the star ship carrying the young Kal El headed to Earth with no other distractions. The ship closed in on the rotating planet and started it's decent into the atmosphere above the North American continent. The fragments of Krypton green and glowing started raining down all over country but focused primarily above the state of Kansas where the spacecraft is heading toward at a phenomenal speed.

Lionel Luthor is a simple farmer who lives on a farm about five miles out side of the small town of Smallville Kansas. He is smart but lacks ambition. He he went to college for an engineering degree but his dream ended when he had to take over the family farm. He could have let the Luthor farm land die with his father but he could not do that. It is his legacy and that is enough for him.

It is a warm summer day in July 1987 and Lionel is in the farm on his John Deer tractor. He is grumbling, pissed off that his son Alex once again decided not to do his chores and is instead working in his laboratory in the attic. "The farm dies with me." Lionel mumbles to himself. Alex is smart and probably has a great life ahead of him but Lionel wishes his son would get some color on his skin, or make friends. Lionel looks toward the house and sees a flash of a blue light from the half closed window of the attic and shakes his head. "Sigh."

He then sees his daughter Lena waving at him from the window of her bedroom on the second floor and he smiles. His beloved daughter Lena, two years younger then her ten year old brother Alex but she is very sick. Much of what Lionel does is for his daughter, her treatments at the hospital, her medication, her private nurse. He would do anything for Lena.

Lena moves away from the window and Lionel continues working on the fields, he does not bother looking up in the sky. The sky never really interests him. If he were to look up today he would see a bunch of green flashes in the sky but soon he will hear what is going on.

As Lionel comes close to the road at the end of his field he sees a truck pass by. He knows that truck and the people in it. They are the Kents his closest neighbors, they lived three miles down the country road. They are traveling away from Smallville and Martha has a baby in her hands. Their child is finally coming home. He remembers Johnathan telling him they had a boy named Clark. Lionel thinks that after he is done with the farm work he will head over to the Kent's place, maybe if Lena is up to it she can come to. She seems healthy this morning.

Then as Lionel is thinking of the Kents and their new born son he hears a loud crack and twists his head toward the road. The Kent's car is on fire and it's driving like crazy. "The hell?" Lionel stops the tractor and stands up in it, he hears more loud thundering sounds and watches as green shards of light rain down all over the place. "It's raining fire." Lionel yells as he watches the chaos.

There is a loud scream from the Kent truck as it drives out of the road and into the open field just past the Luthor Farm. Lionel jumps off his tracker and is about to check on them when he sees a larger meteor, this one blue, green, and yellow with an odd egg shape to it falls from the sky toward the Kents. He watches in shock, unable to move as the large egg shaped meteor crashes into the Kent's truck and there is an explosion and fire flies up into the air fifteen feet from the Kent's ruined truck.

Lionel does not look to see if the rain of green fire has ended, he does not run for safety, no he runs toward his friend's truck, "John? Martha?" He yells barely hearing his own voice over the sound of his heart beating in his chest. The fires around the truck are just about gone when he reaches it, he yells for his friend again but as he sees the damage he realizes no one could have survived that. The truck is a burned out husk, there are no remains that Lionel could see, "This is bad." he punches the ground, mad that he can't even see anything resembling human remains. "They were good people God, GOOD PEOPLE." he yells into the sky.

Lionel's eyes then look at the green, blue and yellow egg shaped meteor, as he looks at it he realizes it is no meteor, "What the hell is that?" He wipes his eyes and walks closer to the object. "This is a spaceship." He says in amazement as he walks closer to it. He forgot about his dead friends for a minute and touches the side of the ship. He touches a blue and gold insignia that looks slightly similar to an S, "It's cold." He says surprised that indeed the object is cool to the touch when it should be hot.

Lionel then steps back as a red light flashes on the side of the ship and a hatch opens up. The hatch opens upward and gray smoke obscures Lionel's view. As the smoke clears Lionel is completely shocked at what he sees. He sees what looks like a perfectly normal and healthy human baby, sleeping peacefully. The baby shifts slightly and giggles as it moves. "This?" Lionel can't think of a word to say. He is speechless. He grabs the baby and holds it in his hand. "I have to figure out what I'm going to do with you. You did kill the Kents but I don't think you can be blamed for that now can you?" The baby being a baby does not respond. The baby is male, and weighs maybe eight, pounds, and has a full head of black hair, it looks to be about a week or two old, the same age the Kent's child Clark would be. As Lionel rocks the baby it opens it's eyes and moves one of it's fat baby arms to try to block the sun, Lionel seeing the clear blue eyes sees the unearthly beauty of the boy, "I think I'm going to keep you but how?"

Lionel looks at the wreck of the Kent's truck and then at the spacecraft, "Well you look like you could be Johnathan and Martha's child, god rest their souls." The farmer says to the baby who giggles and reaches for Lionel's face but can't reach it. "But we have to do something about that craft. This place will be crawling with reporters soon enough, can't have them see that."

Lionel walks over to his tractor, sets the baby down gently and starts the vehicle. He moves his tractor toward the ship, then gets out and hooks the towing cable to the craft. He had it installed due to trouble with his old car. He was glad he never took it off. He then dragged the craft into his field, luckily due to the alien material the ship is much lighter then it looks. After setting the craft into his field he realizes that anyone with half a brain could figure out what he did. "Yeah that's not going to work." Parking the tractor he looks at the baby who is very peaceful and quite and seems to have drifted back to sleep and then gets out.

Lionel covers up his tractor tracks, he kicks around the dirt, breaks more weeds and grass so it does not look like there is just one path and makes it seem like if something was taken away it was not by a tractor but a group of people carrying it. When he felt confident with his work he returns to the tractor. He moves the craft further into his field, looking at the boy who has stolen his attention. He has an idea, "You're the Kent's Son, you were thrown out of the truck and landed safely." He says to the child who responds by giggling in its sleep.

Lionel parks his tractor near the barn and then gets out, holding the baby in his hands he looks at his house. Only now does he see that it's on fire, "No." There is large hole in the roof near Alex's lab in the attic, there is green smoke pouring out of the hole. "Alex?" He runs to the house, "Lena, Alex?" He yells, "No this can't be happening not my children? Please god."

As he gets close to the door he sees Lena standing on the porch. Weak Lena whose allergies and frail bones keep her in bed most of the time managed to get out of bed and walk outside. Lionel smiles and runs to his daughter. He sets Clark, that's who he thinks of the baby as, Clark Kent, on the swing and then hugs Lena, "Lena, I'm so glad your okay." He huge his daughter tighter, and cries for her, "You did well." he then realizes Alex is not outside. "Alex?"

"Daddy, Lex is still inside." Lex is what Lena calls Alex, she is the only one he lets call him Lex.

"WHAT?" Lionel opens the front door then looks at his daughter, "Lena, since you seem to be handling it well, take Clark here and go to the truck. It's unlocked and you will be safe there. I will find Alex."

Lena nods, she then picks up the baby and turns to her father, she looks at her father with distant eyes, the eyes she has before she normally faints, but she seems strong right now, "You will find Lex but you might not want to daddy, he might be hard to look at."

He looked at his daughter for a second with a dumbfounded expression, she has said stuff like this before and he never took them seriously. Lena turns away and runs to the truck so Lionel walks into the burning house. The first floor is not on fire but smoke is covering the place and he can smell the burning wood and even hear the fire and he gets closer to the stairs to the second floor, "Alex?" Lionel calls out.

There is a loud cough from someone breathing in smoke and a hacking sound, "Dad?" The voice is weak.

Lionel climbs the stairs and reaches the the entrance to the attic, the fire is surrounding him, there are strange green flames and smoke in the attic as the red flames are flying around him. His viability is impaired greatly as he grabs for the attic ladder and climbs, "Alex, I'm going to save you. I'm coming."

As he climbs it he can here his son's voice get louder, it is a mix of coughing, calling for help and asking for his mother, "Get mom for me." Alex screams.

He sees his son down on the floor of the attic, he seems badly burned and is still covered with flame. His red hair is charred black. Lionel grabs his son and drags him out of the attic. When he steps down on the second floor he throws his son over his shoulder, "You will be okay Alex. I swear it."

"I want my mommy." Lex says his words slurred voice, clearly Alex's mind has taken him to a safer earlier time and does not realize his mother is dead.

"Don't talk Alex, save your strength." Lionel says as he makes his way out of the house, "Your going to make it. We are all going to make it. Lionel runs to his truck where Lena is sitting in the front seat with the baby in her hands. Lionel opens the back up and places Alex down, he gets a good look at son's body for the first time, his hair has fallen off and half of his face is badly burned and black. Also he is completely covered with thin film of green dust. He has to look away from his son, his face is hard to look at like Lena said. Lionel looks away, "You will live son."

Lionel gets into the drivers seat of the car and looks at his daughter. His precious and weak Lena is being really strong and he was never more proud of her, "Thank you for your help." He says as he starts the car.

"You said he's Clark Kent?" Lena says looking at the baby. "Daddy? Where are the Kents?"

He does not look at his daughter as he drives, to Smallville's hospital, he can't answer that question. He lost two of his best friends and he is afraid that his son is next. The son who resents and maybe even hates his father. Lionel does not let that stop him.

Lionel rushed over to Smallville's small hospital but the place was packed. There were cars all over the place, half the town must be there. There are police officers all over the place, cop cars with their lights on, people talking to the officers, "I guess it was not an isolated incident." Lionel mumbles to himself talking about what happened to his farm. He pulls up to the parking lot and is stopped by an officer who looks at him, "I have an emergency sir." Lionel says with a hurried voice.

"Half of Smallville has an emergency Mr..." The cop racks his brain trying to find a name to go with this face as he knows the man and the truck, "Mr. Luthor."

Lionel rows down the window to the back seat, "Well this one is an priority emergency. My son needs medical attention now."

The cop looks in and has to cover the disgusted expression on his face, "Holy." The cop looks away and turns on his radio, "This is officer Marlon, we have a level one emergency, a kid with burns all over his body and seems to be in critical, worst case form the meteor storm yet, worst living case anyway." He talks for a while longer, "Yes it's Lionel Luthor's son, Alexander Luthor. Okay thanks." He listens to his response and then looks at Lionel, "Head to the emergency room entrance. Sorry for the hassle."

"No problem." Lionel drives off not having time to think about what's going on. Clearly lots of people have been injured or died and the town of Smallville just is not equip for such an incident. There are no big cities for miles and the other towns are equally small and won't be much help. The state police already seem to be helping the county sheriff department and the local officers.

Lionel pulls into emergency parking lot and when he gets out he lifts his son and runs to the emergency entrance, "Lena find a seat at the waiting area and watch Clark. I will join you when I know Alex is safe."

Lena wants to tell her father she wanted to go with him but she has Clark to watch so she heads toward the main entrance to the ER waiting room while her father and Alex head to the Emergency entrance. There a couple nurses are waiting for Lionel and Alex with a gurney, clearly they have been told about his condition but not in detail. "Mr. Luthor set your son down." One of the nurses says trying to not look directly at Alex.

Lionel sets his son down looking at the nurses, "Do I need to be there?" He said softly.

The nurse nods her head as the male nurse starts to pull Alex who is now laying down unconscious on the gurney into the hospital. Lionel follows behind them into the halls of the hospital, the Smallville hospital is very small and normally empty yet everyone is ether closed with do not disturb signs or the rooms being open and filled with two or three patients. There are people outside or rooms in rolled up beds waiting for their turn. Lionel closes his eyes and walks silently, "This is horrible."

"There was that meteor storm this morning Mr. Luthor, not that I need to tell you that, you were clearly caught up in it." The female nurse said walking next to him.

"I know. I lost my house, and some good friends." The Kents, their truck he needs to report it, "I need to speak to a cop, after I know my son is being taken care of."

"Well there are plenty of cops in the hospital Mr. Luthor." A strong male voice calls from a few feet away. It is a young doctor with blond hair and green eyes, "Hello I'm Dr. Tourp, Nathaniel Tourp. I will be taking care of your son." Tourp shakes Lionel's hand quickly and then looks at Alex. "Wow they were not lying. Those are radiation burns, horrible radiation burns. The worst I have seen today for sure." He is speaking to himself more then anyone else.

Lionel's eyes open wide, "Wait what radiation burns?"

Tourp does not answer him, "I have to do some tests on the kid now. Yes, I can't waste time." He grabs the gurney and only then responds to Mr. Luthor, "I will explain later when you need to know. Now you want to speak to a cop, right? I believe you can find someone in the waiting room. Now leave us."

Lionel is annoyed by the doctor yet realizes the man is probably rushing to get a lot of work done. Though Dr. Tourp seems like he has not done much work today, unlike many he could choose his cases even in this crisis. "Whatever." Lionel heads to the waiting room and sees his daughter sitting with the infant Clark, the alien baby. What does he play in all of this. "Hi honey, how are you holding up?" he asks Lena.

"I feel fine." Normally even a small amount of activity will wipe Lena out, she has very little energy and weak underdeveloped muscles and bone strength, yet she is quite active right now. Almost a miracle in the middle of a crisis.

He hugs his daughter and kisses her on the cheek, "You are a brave girl."

"How is Lex?" She says softly.

"Alex is doing fine." He lies not knowing the fate of his son at all. He looks down at Clark who is smiling and laughing, "Let me take him for a second I have something I need to do. Why don't you get something to drink." He hands his daughter a couple bucks for the machine.

Lena runs off to get a drink while smiling and Lionel looks for a police officer, he spots a cop that he knows, one of his drinking buddies James Hung, "Hey Hung I need to talk."

Hung is talking to a few people and turns his head and sees Lionel. Hung has a stern face which softens slightly when he sees his friend, "Hey Lionel don't tell me you got caught in the storm." He looks at the child in his hand, "That's not your kid is it?" He gives a forced laugh.

Lionel shakes his head, "It's the Kents' kid." He then closes his eyes trying to speak but no words form.

"Oh the Kents?" Hung shakes his head. "That makes fifteen people killed in the storm so far." He mumbles under his breath.

"Yeah it happened in front of my farm. They were driving home with Clark when a meteor destroyed their truck. They were killed instantly, their son luckily was blown safely out of the car." It is painful to talk about and the next part is even worse. "That was not all. My house was hit and.." he chokes up unable to say the next part.

"No, not Lena and Alex?" Hung has to sit and take out a note pad, he has to report all incidents from the meteor storm because soon the whole incident needs to be accounted for.

"Lena's fine, better then I have seen her actually." Lionel says wiping a tear, he sees his daughter getting a can of pop from the nearest machine. "Alex, well Alex is still alive anyway. The storm hit my house near his lab in the attic. He was badly burned, the doctor said something about radiation burns but that makes no sense."

Hung's face goes pale, "You don't know?"

"What do I need to know?" Lionel clearly seems to be out of the loop.

"No you wouldn't. It's been released that the meteors are composed of some radioactive material. An unknown material at that. There have been various cases of radiation burns and poisoning but most cases are not that bad. Only people who came in direct contact of the space rocks seem to be exposed."

"Oh I see." Lionel knows his son was exposed. Alex was covered with green dust when he pulled him out of the dust. He looks away from his old friend as Lena returns with a pop.

"Hi Mr. Hung." Lena says cheerfully. She hands her father a can of Pepsi, "Daddy I figured you might be thirsty too."

"Thanks." Lionel says and grabs the can of pop from his daughter.

Lionel says good bye to his friend and walks with his daughter down to an empty seat. There really is nothing he can do but watch and wait. People came in and out of the emergency room, patients are brought in and out and the activity was busy and loud for most of the day. Lionel read some magazines, got up once with Lena to get some food from the cafeteria, fed Clark and changed his diaper at one point (with the help of a kind mother of a six month old girl) Lionel just waited for the doctor or a nurse to talk to him, to know anything about Alex's condition. Was his son okay? Is he going to make it?

While Lionel is eating a dry chicken salad sandwich, which was probably made two days ago, an older black gentleman in a police uniform sits down next to him and puts his hand on his shoulder, "How are you holding up Mr. Luthor? Hung told me what happened to you. I meant to see you sooner but I have been doing the rounds talking to everyone who was affected by this disaster. Smallville never faced such a incident before, such a media frenzy, we have reporters all the way from Gotham, Metropolis and Star City wanting a scoop. I would say your lucky you only told your story to Hung."

Lionel looks at his watch, it's three fourteen in the afternoon and then looks up into the chief of police's eyes. Doug Parker has been chief of police in Smallville for sixteen years and it's no surprise that he has never dealt with an incident on this level before. Nothing happens in Smallville. "I have had other things on my mind. I don't wish to retell the Kent story, not to the press."

"You're going to have to." He reaches down and lays a hand on the sleeping Clark who is in Lena's hands, Lena is also sleeping. "The Kent's truck has been found as has the damage from your house. The Kents they are confirmed to be dead even their son."

"Well he's not."

"Clearly." Parker says in his slow understanding tone. "Also the press is searching for you, they want to know what happened to your family. Your house is half burned down but it's clear you escaped, your truck is gone. The press wants to know what your story."

"So where are they?" Lionel says clearly irritated.

"We are keeping the press out of the hospital, even the local press. We don't want to upset the victims of the incident. They will be allowed in here in a couple of days but by then some reporters will find a way in. Anyway what's your plan for the Kent kid?"

Lionel thinks about it for a few seconds, he knows nothing about this child who is clearly not human. Lionel does not know what will happen if it goes into a orphanage or becomes a ward of the state. He already knows more about the kid then anyone else, this is his responsibility. "Well I'm thinking I might adopt him, after all this mess is over that is. From what I understand the Kents have no living family and I don't want to leave the child alone."

"Taking care of three kids by yourself? Is that wise." He then looks at Lena, "You already have Lena's special needs do deal with, and who knows what will happen with Alex. Not to mention your house, really is that wise?"

"The place is completely insured as are the kids. I'm not worried. I have bad luck right now. However I'm thinking about breaking out some of my old inventions and trying again. Maybe put that college degree to good use." Lionel is a brilliant engineer and an amateur inventor but gave it up when he inhabited the farm, though he tinkers from time to time.

Parker looks at Lionel like he's nuts, the man is clearly worn out, and needs some sleep. He does not know exactly what he is talking about. "You need to rest and think about what your saying Lionel. Clearly you're stressed out and worried."

"Yeah your right." Lionel washes down the dry sandwich with his third can of cola and looks at the TV, "I think our conversation is over."

Doug Parker nods and leaves Lionel alone. Lionel is wishing for two things right now, a beer which he can't have since he has to stay at the hospital and he wants to know how is son is doing. He is feeling horrible because he can't have ether. Finishing his sandwich he throws the wrapper away. Lionel then closes his eyes, yeah maybe it is best if he rests for a few hours.

Lionel does not know how long he was asleep when he he is woken up, someone taps him on his shoulder while calling his name, "Mr. Luthor." It is an irritated voice of someone who would rather not be dealing with human interaction. It is Dr. Nathaniel Tourp. The hansom young doctor only took this case because of it's severity otherwise he would be researching the effects of the radiation on the environment. He is a radiation specialist and meteor astronomer from Metropolis's STAR labs who came to Smallville to study the meteor shower that was passing though. He expected some would hit in the area but thought most of the rocks would pass by Earth harmlessly. He did not expect the level of chaos that occurred.

Lionel looks up at the doctor and rubs his eyes. The doctor has an irritated look on his face, "Sorry I was tired."

"Not my problem Mr. Luthor. Come with me."

Lionel stands up and looks at his daughter, "Lena stay here." He then catches up to Dr. Tourp who has already moved on. "Is it Alex, is he okay?"

"Yes it's your son." The doctor does not look back and answers coldly. "Now is he okay? He will live yes but will it be much of a life? I wonder."

Lionel looks confused the doctor is not giving him a real answer. "What do you mean? What's wrong with my son?"

The doctor does not answer at least not right away he leads Lionel to a small room at the end of the hall and opens the door. The room is nearly pitch black with the windows covered with heavy curtains to keep out the sun's light. There is a dim red light in front of the bed and it is the main light source of the room as the overhead lights are off. There is the light of the medical equipment but that's it. "I really can't give you an answer." Is there sadness in the doctor's voice? Lionel can't tell.

"Why not." He looks at his son who is laying in bed, even though the room is dark and he can't clearly see his son's face it looks wrong. There are horrible burns covering three fourths of his face and most of his body is bandaged. "What is with the lack of light."

"Solar radiation and ultraviolet hurts your son. It is a side effect of the horrible radiation burns he received from exposure to the meteors. The sun will kill him and florescent lights hurt him. I have never seen anything like this before. Of course it's a new type of radiation of extraterrestrial origin that's to be expected. Still no one else was affected like this." His mind is wondering off away from Alex and Lionel. He seems more interested in radiation then he does in helping Lionel's son.

Lionel puts his hand on Alex's head, tears form from his face and drip onto his son's head, "Alex I know I don't say it often enough but I love you." His son does not hear him so he turns away, "What do you know about this?"

"Not much," the doctor says plainly, "I can tell you even less. Your son is not the worst case of radiation poisoning seen today and not even the worst living, if the Braveman boy lives that is. I really don't know." He mutters that last part as Lionel is not suppose to hear it.

"Will my son be able to return home?"

"It's possible. Not for a few weeks anyway. There are tests to run. I have to see if there is a way to reverse the radiation's effects but I don't think so. I think the sun will be deadly to your son for the rest of his life. To bad for him." Tourp's off putting attitude and detached mannerisms make the man very easy to hate and he is pushing Lionel to the limits. Lionel is doing everything he can to control himself and not snap at the doctor. "Now I should show you just what your son looks like. I warn you it's not a pretty sight." He motions for the nurse to turn on the rooms lights.

"Won't that hurt him?" Lionel asks.

"Not if we are quick about it."

The lights turn on and Lionel is taken back by his son's appearance. His skin has a gray tone to it, as if most of the color has drained out of him and his face and body are covered with nasty looking burns that are just beginning to scar over. The burns are a mix of black and red with splashes of a glowing green. "That is the meteor rock radiation we could not remove all of it from your son. His blood is contaminated by it and probably always will be."

Lionel does not respond, he holds his hand up to his mouth to hide his sickened reaction. He looks down at his son who is still sleeping, his eyes are moving rapidly and seem to be in REM sleep. His eyelids are a dark gray almost black color like he has permanent bags under his eyes. Lionel has to look away and then the lights are turned off. He looks at Dr. Tourp, "Can I have a few minutes alone with him."

"Sure but in five minutes I need you to leave. I need to run more tests on your son." The doctor and the two nurses leave.

He looks at his son again, in the darkness with only that strange red light over his son Lionel can pretend that Alex is normal or at least that his injuries are not that bad. "Please don't die on me Alex. I know you blame me for the death of your mother, that was not my fault. I know you hate how I treat you, that is my fault. I gave up my inventions, my love of science for the farm and I guess I regretted it. I guess I envied how much smarter you are then me and I tried to pull you away from your work. As a result you hate me. I'm Sorry Alex forgive me." His son does not respond.

Lionel gets up to leave, "Alex I love you, I always will." As he walks away he hears a mumble from his son and turns around. The mumble is repeated and he walks up to Alex, "Yes son? Yes Alex I'm here."

"Call me Lex, call me Lex, call me Lex never Alex always Lex." He repeats. Lionel does not know if it is his son's mind working automaticly or if Alex means it.

Lionel speaks softly as he walks out of the room, "You got it Lex."

_The Smallville Sentinel 6 21 87_

**The Smallville Meteor Crisis by Hector Ross**

Three days ago a freak meteor storm rained down in southern Kansas near the town of Smallville. It was one of the worst meteor showers to impact Earth in recorded history and the biggest crisis to hit Smallville in the town's entire history. Smallville is a quite farm town that is far from any large city, and has no real tourist attractions. It is a simple community with a small hospital, an independent school system, a small police and fire department and some mom and pop stores. Oh we have the occasional big name gas station and fast food place here or there but for the most part it is a town stuck in the past and we like it that way.

So the meteor shower, called the Rains of Krypton by meteor astrological expert Nathaniel Tourp has shook our town to it's very foundation. Hundreds were injured by the barrage of rocks falling from the sky, the total number reaching one hundred and thirty with thirty four deaths. Nothing like this has ever been seen before in Smallville.

Nathaniel Tourp a meteor astronomer from metropolis's STAR Labs, had been studying the movement of the meteor shower for months, and knew it would pass by Earth near the Smallville area but he and others in his field believed the meteor shower would harmlessly pass by our planet with only a few impacts. "It was a huge miscalculation on our part." Tourp states, "We at STAR Labs knew of the shower and knew it would be coming very close to Earth's atmosphere, we should have taken the necessary precautions." Tourp seemed emotionally unattached and unconcerned when he was being interviewed.

When asked why he named the event the 'Rains of Krypton' Tourp responded, "We have been studying a newly discovered Star called Rao and one of the planets we designated as Krypton was there in earlier images of the solar system. In latter viewings of the star Krypton was gone, replaced with a new asteroid belt. It is our belief that Krypton somehow exploded and the resulting meteor swarm are the remains of the planet, as the trajectory of the meteors places it's starting location roughly where Krypton once stood." Of course Tourp reminds us that he does not know that for certain and that is just what STAR Lab's data and his personal theory suggests.

Now the meteorites are radioactive but according to Tourp the radiation is not deadly or even that harmful to humans. Of the thirty four deaths only five of them are due to radiation poisoning and that was due to interaction with existing medical conditions. Most of the cases of radiation poisoning by the substance called "kryptonite" or meteorite from Krypton are survivable with complications for the rest of the person's life. Still that is very high exposure to the stuff and a normal piece of Kryptonite's radiation is too miniscule to effect a full grown human or even a little kid.

Deaths from the Meteor shower include officer Dale Respine (34), Fire chief Baxter Evans (42) Lenard Lang (26), Martha and Johnathan Kent (26 and 28), and Gloria Braveman (31). The Kent's new born son Clark survived miraculously being thrown from the Kents' truck as it was hit by a meteorite and exploded. Clark landed safely in some hay and was brought to the hospital by Lionel Luthor. Gloria Braveman and her husband Frank were driving to the hospital when their car was hit and Gloria went into labor. She died giving birth to her son Kenny on the side of the road. Kenny is perfectly healthy and doing fine.

Smallville will eventually recover from the meteor storm and most people in Smallville will return to their normal lives. However this could be a sign of change for Smallville as a sleepy town. When the tragedy fades into memory the event itself will probably make our sleepy town remembered in the history books. It's not what the people of Smallville want to be remembered for.

_The Daily Planet 9 12 91_

**Luthor Tech comes to Metropolis, by Perry White**

On the first of September Luthor Technologies opened doors to it's new head quarters in downtown Metropolis. Luthor Technologies is the company that has taken the world by storm. Their first computer was introduced sixteen months ago at the Star City Technology Expo. That computer was the Luthor Exodus 1 whose BRNC or "Brainiac" processor was four times more powerful then the current computers on the market.

Luthor Technologies was founded by Lionel Luthor two years ago. Lionel is a farmer from the rural town of Smallville best known for the meteor shower of 87. Lionel was at the time a failed inventor who recently attempted to return to the game. He used the money given to him by the state as compensation for the destruction of his farm to fund his company and make his prototype Exodus 1. Which he introduced at the SCT Expo and blew people and potential investors away with his computer's power.

The Exodus 1 hit shelves on May 90 and shattered expectations. The computer was far more affordable then Microsonic or Orange Corp's cheapest computers while being much more powerful. Somehow Luthor managed to develop a powerful computer processor for a fraction of the cost. The Exodus 1 quickly became the computer for the average person, for schools, and even for businesses. The stock of Luthor Technologies skyrocketed and still is raising though the roof.

The move of Luthor Tech's main office from downtown Smallville to Metropolis, is a huge deal. All the major cities from New York, to LA, to Gotham were bidding for Luthor's new headquarters to be located in their city. Every major city in America wanted the potential jobs that such a move would make. Oh and the Smallville office is not closing and most jobs are being kept but they need more space and Metropolis's Galaxy tower offers much more space for the corporate office.

**Memo of Professor Finn Potter, 5 13 94**

The Luthor girl continues to take a turn for the worst. I am not a medical doctor but Lionel Luthor came to me with his daughter because I am the leading expert in my limited field, ESP or Extra Sensory Perception. Though I admit before I met Lena Luthor I was only an expert on the theories of psychic abilities having never seen concrete evidence of their existence. With Lena there is no denying it. She is a psychic and it is destroying her.

According to her father, Lena was always a weak girl. Her frail body could never hold her brilliant mind and her kind but fragile heart. Her bones were brittle and her muscles were weak, she was confined to her bed on bad days and on good days could play in her room. She always exhibited some signs of psychic abilities that were minor at best. They came in flashes of things that were about to happen or she would know what someone was thinking. Lionel use to see these flashes as coincidences and it was not until a certain incident that he started to realize just how special his daughter was.

Her powers started to grow after the Smallville meteor shower. Now cosmic radiation is not my specialty I don't want to be another nut like Dr. Tourp but there might very well be a connection between the two. Also her body seemed to recover immediately after the storm, a miraculous recovery if there ever was one. Her body still seems normal now it is her mind that seems to be at war with itself.

My simplest explanation is that her powers are too much for her to control. They are evolving but her mind is not. The stronger her abilities become the more space they take up in her brain. This leaves less room her memories, for her voluntary and involuntary actions, and dare I say for Lena herself. It makes no logical or scientific sense what so ever and yet it is happening.

Lena slips in and out of consciousness these days. Sometimes she is coherent and herself for days while other times she talks gibberish and nonsense, sometimes it does not even sound like an Earth based language she is speaking. There are moments when she loses control of her body and draws things she does know know, writes things in an alien language and wonders off searching for something. Lena does not know what her body is looking for, her body seems to be on autopilot during these moments. Lena is working with me to find out what is going on with her. Lionel is paying me handsomely to try to save her and Alex is asking to help. Alex scares me, I think he knows know about what's going on with Lena then I do. Maybe I should take Alex up on his offer and let him help his sister.

The Metropolis Star 3 5 97

**The Golden Son of Night, by Jerry Shuster**

Everyone around the world has been wondering what Lex Luthor's first move would be since Lionel Luthor gave his son a position of power in Luthor Technologies six months ago. Stock holders and investors were watching and waiting for the kid's first move to see if it would send the computer juggernaut to new heights or if Lex would destroy the company in a blaze of glorious incompetence. The general public are watching and waiting to see the next Luthor Tech product they will need to run out to buy. Now that the day has came Lex Luthor's decisions for the company have been one word, unexpected. If this is a good or bad thing the jury is still out.

The twenty year old Alexander Luthor holds a masters degree in engineering, a bachelors in computer science, and a doctorate in medicine. Lex Luthor is not the most sociable character, he is rarely seen and prefers to be in the dark. This is because of his medical condition. Lex Luthor suffers from an extreme case of radiation poisoning he received when he ten years old. He was caught in the horrific Smallville meteor storm. Three fourth of his body is covered in scars, his skin is pale while and his eyes are permanently bloodshot. Also the sun is deadly to him, he's a vampire only one that does not suck blood.

Lex announced several new products at the Gotham City Computer Convention including the new Brainiac 2.0 processor the first update of the original processor which up to that point had stayed top notch for seven years which is amazing for a computer processor. Also introduced the first Luthor technologies operating system, Gaea, for their computers showing that they are now truly competing against Microsonic and Orange, a move Lionel was hesitant to make.

Lex's next move was a shocking one, in his first press conformance he announced that Luthor Corp was now a military contractor. They would be updating the US Armies computer systems using Luthor Technologies new operating system. Also that Luthor Corp was expanding yet again this time for military weapons. Lionel was strongly against making weapons even for our government but clearly he has given Lex free reign over the companies choices as Lionel moves on to other directions.

In addition Lex has also started up Luthor Medical, which has extensive study in the field of radiation. He has hired Nathaniel Tourp an ex STAR Labs scientist made famous for the Smallville meteor shower and made infamous for his questionable theories on radiation and super powers. One might question Lex hiring a disgraced scientist like Tourp but you have to remember Tourp saved Lex's life and may feel he owes the scientist a second chance. Is this a sign that Lex is human? Probably not.

What other directions is Lionel Luthor moving toward? Luthor Media. Lionel Luthor has announced that he is the owner of the Metropolis Monarchs baseball team and there are rumors that he is planning on buying the Sharks. Also Luthor Media started their own TV station WLBS, of course Galaxy Broadcasting will not take that move with out a fight.

There is also the Lena Luthor Foundation that Lionel has started, named after his daughter Lena who's mental state keeps deteriorating and she keeps jumping in and out of consciousness. It is rumored that's why Lex started Luthor Medical but if that's the case why aren't father and son working together on this? Well Lex and Lionel don't really get along Lionel respects his son but the feeling does not seem to be mutual.

The Legacy Press 4 13 04

**End of an era by Chloe Sullivan**

Kansas Pretentious Legacy High School has had an amazing four years. Our school, which has always been one of the top schools for sports and academics, has been undefeated in nearly every field for four years straight. It is all thanks to Kent Luthor and Kenneth Braveman of Smallville who have dominated every sport, baseball, football, basketball, cross country, track and field, tennis. They have also lead the school to quiz bowl, spelling bees, and debate competitions. You name it and those two went to state and dominated ether as a team or as rivals.

Two amazing athletes from the same small town? How does that happen? Does the hard work of being a farm boy make you a great athlete? Well nether Kent Luthor or Ken Braveman are farm boys. Kent is the son of billionaire Lionel Luthor, and could be seen as a pampered rich boy but Kent believes in hard work and being an all around nice guy. People would love him if he was a jerk but that is not the kind of person Kent Luthor is.

Kenny Braveman is Kent Luthor's opposite. Kenny prideful and a showoff where Kent is humble and respectful. Kenny's family is poor and Ken is the recipient of the the Smallville Meteor Recovery Scholarship that the Kansas government started after the incident to help the people and families effected by the meteor shower. Kenny flaunts his skills and what he has, as he believes he earned it. He seems to think he is better then everyone else. There is also Braveman's medical conduction, where for three days a month Kenny has to go to a hospital for special treatments due to radiation poisoning suffered during his birth. It is one thing he had to rise up against and push past.

Their different attitudes aside these two students were a perfect team. They moved together flawlessly like one body. It is their great chemistry and teamwork that gave Legacy four great years. And now that time is over. Kent Star athlete and straight A student is going on to Metropolis University where he plans to get his degree in creative writing and business. Once again it's not something he needs but something he wants. Braveman is also graduating with honors and plans on going to Harvard law to become a lawyer. Every one at Legacy wishes them the best of luck.

The Daily Planet 6 25 12

**And the world did not stop. By Lois Lane.**

Recently people have been talking about the declining health and eventual death of Lionel Luthor as if our world would stop when he passed on. Have we became so reliant on the billionaire for such a thing to happen? I wish I was exaggerating but look at the news, look at the Daily Star, or the Gotham Times, look at any major news paper in the past few weeks that is not the Planet. You will see how they talk about Lionel as a great man and how his death marks a horrible time for man kind. I wish I was exaggerating I really wish I was.

Well guess what people Lionel Luthor passed on Saturday and the world did not end. The stock market did not crumble on Monday, earthquakes did not destroy mankind. The Mayans were wrong and the death of Lionel Luthor does not mean the end of the world. The world does not need Lionel Luthor to survive and the sooner people come to realize that the better.

Don't get me wrong the inventions Luthor Technologies, Luthor Auto, Luthor Medical and other branches of the Luthor empire had achieved a lot of great things. They created the first affordable and effective electric car which helped lower gas prices. The Exodus computers, the E Pods, E Phones, and like devices helped bring our world into the new digital era. Then there was the first safe anti viral medication for HIV and the revolutionary new cancer treatment. I do not deny that Lionel Luthor did a lot for the betterment of mankind. The man was a humanitarian whose fights against hunger and disease were well known. But he was not the second coming and not a savior he was just a man.

He was a man, one with his share of dark secrets but the Daily Planet is not a tabloid rag so I won't get into those. Anyway I think people's fear is less the passing of Lionel and more what that means for Luthor Corp, in particular Lex Luthor's role in the company. People simply don't trust Lex. Lex took the corporation in directions that Lionel never went, such as weapons for the military and police. Lex seems to be a man obsessed with the unknown. No one wants him in control of Luthor Technologies or Luthor Medical. Though people need to realize that Lex has been in charge of Luthor Technologies for nearly ten years now and the man rose in power quickly after starting to work for his father's company.

Lex is a master businessman, a brilliant scientist, a cold calculated man who will do anything needed to stay at the top. Lots of people respect him and more people fear him. While he is to thank for many of the improvements and different directions Luthor corp has gone people are worried what he will do when and if he takes over completely.

Most people hope that Kent Luthor takes over the Luthor Corp empire. Kent, Lionel's youngest child is everything Lex is not. He is outgoing and friendly, well liked and good looking. He has a aura of trustworthiness to him and he is too humble to be a rich boy. Kent is smart himself with a degree in management, creative writing, and journalism. While people want him to take over Luthor Corp as a whole it's pretty much a given that he will gain control of Luthor Media and that the company will probably be split down the middle between the two boys.

No one knows what will happen and no one will know for a few weeks. The will of Lionel Luthor will probably be read in secrecy to his children. Lionel might have started his company, might have started this legacy but it is his heirs that will show us which direction we are heading. Luthor Corp is a world super power no denying that and in the wrong hands that can be a terrible thing.


	2. Day of the convention

**The Men who Look Down on the World**

**Chapter One**

_July Ninth 2012_

Lois Lane of the Daily Planet is sitting at her desk early in the morning, she see's Jon Hasten the janitor as the only other person on the floor at five thirty in the morning. Jon is use to Lois coming in early in the morning and her being the first person to enter and the last person to leave every day. At first he asked her why she was always working or if she lived at the Planet's office and she laughed at him and never gave a real answer. He realized that Lois is a very hard worker who wants to be one step ahead of everyone else.

"Hey Miss Lane I have to go, I'm locking up as it's still an hour and a half before the building opens." Jon says to Lois who just nods and returns to her computer. He wonders if Lois is working on some big scoop.

Lois does not have any big scoop not an official one anyway. No she is free writing, keeping her mind fresh with potential stories to see if it's something she can work with. She opens up one of her side projects, one on Intergang. This is the story that would make her career, if she could only prove her theories correct.

'Who is truly in control of Intergang? Intergang is Metropolis's unified organized crime syndicate that is rumored to control nearly seventy five percent of Metropolis criminal underworld. Intergang popped up around three years ago and quickly gained domanace. Intergang is known for their high level of technology, stuff that is the cutting edge of weapons tech and often ahead of what the police and military have. How does Intergang get their hands of such technology? Do they make it themselves? Do they steal it? Are they working with someone with money and power?'

Lois wrote that a while ago and looks it over, it is completely true. This is where she is stuck, what she knows about Intergang is what everyone knows about Intergang. There is no known secret leader, no connection with some rich big shot, no nothing. Just Bruno Mannheim, a grade A scum bag who runs the organization, and has the best lawyers in the world in his pocket.

'The leader of Intergang is one Bruno Mannheim. Bruno Mannheim is scum, everyone knows he's scum. The man was a low level gangster for years, he ran rackets and took collection money but he was always a bit player. Then something changed. Mannheim was locked up for a few years and when he got out he started Intergang and suddenly he was untouchable. Intergang had weapons that matched the military's top secret weapons and then some. There is no way someone like Mannheim could be behind this. The man was never this organized and he alone does not have the connections.'

Lois has her theories she has written them before, told Perry White about them, Perry dismissed them. Lois did some research on Mannheim during his three years in Stryker's Island Penitentiary and fond a connection most people just ignored. He was in jail at the same time as Vincent Edge, the father of Morgan Edge head of Galaxy communications. The elder Edge was in jail for illegal gambling and for extortion and was in Stryker's Island Prison for thirteen months. Yet for a six month period Vincent Edge and Bruno Mannheim shared a cell.

Perry told Lois to never print that, and to stop digging into the Edge Family. Perry White is a good friend of Morgan Edge and does not want his friend's name sullied without proof. Still Lois is not one to stop digging. She has put her suspicions of Edge on hold for the time being.

'Someone is pulling Mannheim's strings, Mannheim might not even realize he's not the one in control.'

Lois stopped typing, there is not much more she can say about Intergang. Not without diving into her crazy theories. The information on them is sparse to say the least. She believes that she knows more about Intergang then anyone else though. Lois starts typing about other news reports, such as the upcoming Luthor Corporation press conference, the first big conference since Lex Luthor took over. She is sure she will be Perry's representative for the conference and hopes it's not boring. She also hopes Lex Luthor is there, she has never seen the dark son up close and really wants to.

People slowly started entering the Daily Planet building as the work day begins. The second person to enter the office today like almost every day is Perry White the Editor in Chief. The man has a smile on his face and he walks into the office with a cup of coffee in his hand and a Danish in the other, "Hey Lois." He says with a slight southern accent.

Lois does not respond, she is writing about Lex Luthor, what she knows about him, what she believes and does not even realize that White is looking over her shoulder. "If the wrong person sees you write that miss Lane you could make enemies." He says his smile not wavering.

"You know I'm afraid of no one chief." Lois says not even looking up. "Besides it's free writing, none of this will end up in the paper. I never let my opinion effect my writing you know that."

"And that's why you have a job here Lois." He sets down a cup of coffee on her desk, "No cream three surges, the way you like it."

Lois smiles, Perry is a good boss, more of a father then an authority figure. She drinks the coffee and feels the extra energy perk her up. She has been working too long. "No rest for the wicked so no rest for me." She says as she sets the coffee down and continues writing.

The next person to walk in like always is Jimmy Olson. Jimmy is a very enthusiastic young intern going for his degree in photo journalism and really really wants to be lead photographer at the Planet. He is a brown noser of the best kind he will do everything for everybody in hopes of catching his break. So far his break has been being gofer for everyone at the Planet, getting lunch and being a doormat. Yet that does not seem effect Jimmy's attitude in the slightest.

"Hey Lois I see your here already." Jimmy says as he says every day. He always sounds surprised to see Lois even though it's the most common thing in the world. "Man one of these days I will beat you and the chief here."

"Never going to happen Jimmy." Lois says not looking up.

Jimmy does not let that deter him, he turns toward the Chief's door which is open. "Oh yeah I brought the photos. Hey Mr. White I got those photos I was talking about. The ones I took." Jimmy runs to the chief's office some of the photos in his hands falling to the ground as he runs.

Lois smiles, thinking how nice it is to be young. She knows Jimmy will try to sell his photos but stumble over his words. Then Perry will tell him they are good but lacking that professional flair and that Jimmy really needs some field experience. Jimmy will ask to go with a reporter and Perry will say that the time is not right. It's not a daily occurrence here at the planet but it's damned close.

The rest of the employees for the planet start to pour in and around eight thirty the place as pretty much crowded and busy. People are talking about the latest headlines, going on about crimes, sports, celebrity sightings and everything else. Lois looks at her phone and types out a message, 'Lucy where are you?' She sends to her sister, as she needs to get out of here.

There is a beep on her phone and her sister's message pops up, 'Across the street from the Planet, Nero's Cafe.'

Lois told her sister she would meet her for breakfast after catching a few early hours at work. She types 'See you in five.' and then gets up from her desk. "Hey Jimmy."

The red headed intern turns his head, "Yeah Miss Lane can I help you?" He asks enthusiasticly.

"Tell the chief I'm taking a break if he asks."

"Isn't it early to take a break?" Jimmy asks.

"Not when you have been here since five. I need to leave." Before Jimmy could react Lois has her bag over her shoulder and is already at the elevator riding down. She will let Jimmy deal with damage control. Lois pays no attention to the people in the elevator as she rides down or any one in the building's lobby. As she reaches for the door it opens.

There is a tall man looking at her, smiling at her, "Here you go miss." He says with a kind voice.

Lois nods and looks at him, his face is partly concealed with a large hat and a big pair of sun glasses covering his face yet he looks familiar. He is rearing a blue business suit and a red tie and has a black brief case in his hands. "Do I know you?" She asks.

"Not that I know of miss ah..?" The man says his expression not changing.

"Lane."

"Ah I'm Clark." He says and then watches as she leaves though the front door of the planet before moving on.

Lois cannot get 'Clark' out of her head, she knows she has seen him before, that she should know him but she can't put her fingers on it. "Who are you?" She asks to herself as she walks over to the stop light and gets ready to cross to meet her sister at the cafe.

Lois sees her sister sitting under an umbrella outside the cafe at a table with three seats. Lucy Lane is sitting by herself waiting for Lois and smiles as she sees her, "Hey sis over here."

Lois walks over to her sister and hugs her, "Hey Lucy." They meet at this cafe every week at the same table and they always meet each other with a hug. Lucy sits back down and motions for Lois to sit. "No I'm hungry I need something to eat. You want anything."

"It's being handled, sit." Lucy says smiling.

Lois is surprised her sister never handles anything. Sure she always shows up first and knows what Lois eats but Lucy never orders, never pays. "Is that so?"

"Yeah John's getting it."

Lois expression changed, she frowns and there is a sour taste in her mouth, she then says a name with disdain, "John Corben." Lucy's on again off again boy friend John Corben. She keeps telling her sister to forget Sgt. John Corben, to stop giving the man chances but Lucy never listens. Lois is about to say something when she see's John near the entrance to the cafe.

John walks over to the table in a military uniform holding a plate of eggs and sausage in one hand, and a couple muffins in the other. He sets down the plate next to Lois, "I hope you don't mind that I came with Lucy." John is thick headed and does not realize that Lois clearly hates his guts. He thinks everyone likes him and he has a crush on Lois, had had one since high school. Sometimes Lois thinks he only dates her sister because John could not have her.

"No I don't mind." Lois says her voice dripping with sarcasm. She starts eating fast while John and Lucy look at each other with love struck teenagers with John talking about why he's in Metropolis. Lois figures what keeps their relationship going is that John is often away from Lucy on one mission or another.

"Lex Luthor is introducing a new weapon today and I get to test it. I'm an expert pilot you know." John loves talking about himself and his job.

Lois's interest is perked, "The Luthor Corp press conference?"

"Ah yes you might be there." John says looking at Lois with more interest then he ever shows Lucy. "I can't get into detail but this will revolutionize weapons. I hear Lex's science team developed a new metal alloy for demonstration."

Lois takes a mental note of that and now she wants to be at the conference even more. Something big is going to happen. Something big indeed. She finishes her food and looks at her sister who looks really happy. Lois feels really bad for Lucy, being madly in love with someone who takes his aggressions out on her. Lucy was such a wild child and that streak seems to be gone now. "I have to go, I need to get back to work." That's a lie she still has fifteen minutes but can't stand to look at Corben any longer. She gets up to leave.

"Okay See you later." John answers in place of Lucy who kept her mouth shut.

Lois closes her eyes as she walks away. She walks toward the planet and then turns away looking over to see if ether John or Lucy watched her. Neither were. Lois is going to take a walk, clear her head before she returns to the office. After wondering for about fifteen minutes down the streets of Metropolis she returns to the Daily Planet building. She looks across the street and sees that her sister and John are gone as she enters the building.

The office is even busier now then it was when she left for breakfast. She sees Cat Grant working on her gossip column for the paper. Cat was not in the office when Lois left but that did not surprise her Cat is normally the last person to come to work everyday. Lois walks by Cat and heads to her desk as she sits down Jimmy moves over to her, "Lois the chief needs you."

"Thanks Jimmy." Lois walks over to the Chief's office and sees there is a tall man standing in front of Perry's desk talking to him. The man is the same person Lois met on her way out of the building, his hat is sitting on Perry's desk and he is talking to the chief. "Him again." She still can't figure out just who he is. Lois walks into the office, "So you needed me chief?"

Perry stands smiling, "Glad you could make it Lois, yes I want you to meet someone."

The tall man shifts his weight and turns to look at Lois. He smiles and looks at her with cool blue eyes, "Hello again Miss Lane." The man offers his large hand. "I'm..."

Lois shakes his hand and grips it tight, she then cuts him off, "Kent Luthor. The daylight son." It is a nickname for Kent Luthor, he is the daylight son and Lex is the moonlight son. It has to do with when they are normally seen, Kent during the day and Lex at night. "What are you doing here rich boy?"

"I wanted to see my investment Miss Lane. I'm heading to all Luthor Media establishments to check up on their progress." Kent says not even feeling slightly bothered by Lois calling him rich boy.

"The Daily Planet is not part of Luthor Media." She looks at Perry, who does not say anything.

Kent shakes his head seeing that Lois is pissed. "Miss Lane, Luthor Media has owned the Planet for the last three years."

She looks at Perry. "He's right Lois. Franklin Stern," The previous owner of the planet and Perry White's close personal friend. "Was going though financial trouble years ago and needed help. He got offers from multiple investors and Lionel Luthor gave Stern the best deal. He became a silent partner and Stern was allowed to run the Planet the way it always ran."

Kent Luthor then continues, "My father was a firm believer in freedom of the press and did not want people to think the Planet was a new pawn following his agenda." He looks at Lois and winks at her, "After all he hired a reporter who ended up being one of his most vocal critics."

Lois looks at Kent coldly, "So now you have decided to change that?"

Kent does not accept Lois's challenge, "No no you misunderstand. I want the Planet to continue running the way it's always been ran. I simply plan to be more hands on then my father was. Perry will still be editor in chief of course."

"And what do you want?" Lois knows Kent sees himself as a reporter, that he went to school for journalism but she never read his articles and never will he's not a writer he's a pampered rich kid.

"I want to be a reporter Miss Lane. I want to be there as the news happens. I want to report it fairly and honestly." Kent while he is far from looking like an idealistic kid sounds just like Jimmy does when he talks about being a photographer. "I was a reporter for Metropolis University and I have had several articles published. I was also a travel reporter for the World Explorer. Have you read any of them?"

"No I have not." Lois says not really caring. "So the Daily Planet is going to be the playground for a spoiled rich kid so he can play reporter."

"LOIS." Perry yells. While Perry is normally calm he has a temper. "Watch what you say please."

"No that's fine." Kent puts his hands in his pocket, "I like her bluntness. That's why I wanted to see her. She always speaks her mind. Miss Lane I am not playing. I realize I can't be a reporter, I will be running this place with Perry still being in charge and you as head investigative reporter. Nothing is going to change Miss Lane."

Lois is getting impatient now, is that what Kent Luthor wanted to tell her that nothing was going to change. This rich boy needed to make a big deal about that. To show who might be his biggest critic that he plans on letting her write what she wants. She smiles thinking is Kent will still think that way when she tells the truth about Luthor Corp. "So is that all."

Perry looks at Kent then back at Lois, "No Mr. Luthor wanted to speak to you for another matter."

"Yes I would like you to be the Planet's correspondent for my brother's press conference today. Apparently I am not the only one who wanted you there. So did a General Sam Lane. Any relation?"

"Yeah he's my father." Lois is not really all that fond of her father.

"Bad blood I take it." Kent says catching her expression.

"Yeah. Oh and I will be there. I would not want to miss Lex's first conference. It's so much better that I'm officially invited. It means I don't have to sneak in." She starts laughing. Lois then walks out of the office but turns back to Kent, "See you later 'Clark'."

Kent whose laughing at her joke as well stops when he realizes Perry has a serous expression on his face, "Wait was she serous?"

Perry looks Kent straight in the eyes, "Yes Lois would have crashed the conference if she had to."

Lois spent the next few hours getting ready for the conference. She went home and took a shower and got dressed. She does not want to get kicked out of this conference not before she can get the scoop of a life time. After eating a sandwich she calls up the office, "Hey I need a cameraman for the conference."

"Sorry Lois." A stammering Jimmy says, "All the camera men on duty with other reporters, no one is free." Jimmy then clears his throat, "Well that's not true, I'm free."

Give Jimmy a chance really? Lois thinks for a second, what choice does she have? "Okay Jimmy meet me at the Lionel Luthor Conference Center at four."

Jimmy's loud enthusiastic voice rings though the phone, "Yes sir, Miss Lane thank you. I will make you proud." As Lois hangs up the phone she can hear Jimmy laughing and jumping being very happy he's getting the opportunity he always needed. Lois sighs and hopes she made the right move. She turns on the TV and watches the GBTV news broadcast while she gets ready.

"This is Angela Chen." A young looking Asian reporter in a light blue suit says. Chen is standing in front of a Bank where a destroyed high tech tank is in two pieces and four thugs are tied up by a light post. "Here at the sight of Metropolis First National Bank where our mysterious new hero Superman just stopped an attempted robbery. The perpetrators were Intergang using a prototype Luthor Tank that was reported stolen last month. I guess that answers that question."

"Superman." Lois says. The man of steel is a reporters dream. The mystery hero first appeared nine months ago and every time he stops a crime or saves a life it is a huge news story. Reporters are fighting for the chance to get the first interview with the elusive man of steel who has only said a few words and for the most part stays out of the way of the camera. Everyone wants to know the full story about Superman.

The news report shows a replay of the crime, it shows the high-tech tank driving up to the bank's front entrance and crashing though. It then shows a blue blur and the tank stops moving and is lifted up into the air by Superman. He then rips the tank open and the four Intergang members fall out. One of the men has a high tech pistol in his hand and says something Lois can't here but it looks like a boast and he fires at Superman. The gun fires a yellow ray that seems to make Superman stagger back but does not stop the man of steel who in a flash grabs the gun from the gangster and crushes it with his hands.

"Once again Superman saved the day, he is the hero of the people. He asks for nothing in return and is quick and efficient. He was gone by the time cops and reporters came to the scene." Angela stands there for a couple second and then the screen changes back to the studio.

"Thank you for that Angela." The older graying brown haired man says. "Coming up when we get back an interview with General Sam Lane as he talks about what we can except at Lex Luthor's press conference."

Lois turns off the TV that is the last thing she wants to see right now. She will deal with her father soon enough.

The Lionel Luthor Convention Center is already busy getting ready for Lex Luthor's big conference at two thirty. It is the thirty five year old Luthor's first press conference as the head of Luthor Technologies and it is going to be a big event. Lex Luthor is not in charge of setting up the conference no he is locked in his dark room practicing his words and getting reading for the event. No the busy work is being handled by Mercy Graves his personal assistant and body guard.

Graves is a tough as nails woman, she is five feet seven and has a stern emotionless face, She is thin but muscular and a force to be reckoned with. She is dressed in a tight blue business suit and matching skirt and is walking around the convention center with an air of authority to her. Even people who don't know her knows she's in change, she just has that feel about her.

"Alright set up the hard light projectors up on the stage. Yeah yeah Lex wants to be seen by everyone and his condition makes that hard." She says to the work crew who are setting up small round spheres, holographic projectors. Lex rarely appears in person especially during the day.

Mercy watches the crew set up the spheres with no emotion on her face. She makes sure they do not screw up and nods before moving on. "Good." She walks over to what will be the press section, a small area for people to stand up and ask questions in front of the seats for the general audience. The press conference is open to every one, it was one of Kent's ideas. Mercy is not really to fond of it but Lex decided to let his brother have this little victory. That and the Planet correspondent. Mercy would rather have the Planet no where near Lex Luthor, the Planet especially miss Lane smudges the good Luthor name too often and yet Lionel and now Kent allow the Planet to do so. "Things have to change."

Mercy is greeted by Kent as she enters the press area. Kent is very hansom, and very charismatic, talking friendly to everyone working on setting up the conference no matter how unimportant they are. He turns and sees Mercy his looking at him with an irritated expression, "Hows it going Mercy."

"Everything is fine Mr. Luthor." Mercy says. She does not hate Kent but she does not like him ether. The man rubs her the wrong way. He's too nice, too forgiving, and always looking for the best in people.

"Come on Mercy we have been over this how many times? Call me Kent." Kent is not really a fan of formal titles and wants everyone to call him by his first name.

Mercy won't do that but kindly says, "I will remember that sir."

"Good well everything is fine on my end. The press box is ready and the seats are ready for the general public. Oh General Lane is looking for you."

Mercy nods and takes her leave from Kent, the General can't be kept waiting. Mercy makes her way past the press area ignoring everyone in her way and finds her way to the back of the conference area where General Lane, Sgt Corben, and other military personal are standing next to the Lex Weaponry Metallo Armored suit the LWM1. "You wanted to see me General?"

"I want to see Lex." General Lane is a large man, nearly seven feet tall, and is probably about two hundred and fifty pounds says. He makes Mercy look small and that is saying a lot. He is dressed in his military dress uniform and has a permanent snarl on his scarred face. His eyes are grayish blue and his hair is grayish brown. "However no one not even knows if he's here. They say if any one knows you would."

"Lex is here but he does not want to see anyone. He is getting ready for the conference." She looks at John Corben who is looking over the LWM1 with wonder in his eyes. "Are you Sgt Corben?"

He looks away for a second. "Yes I am." He moves over to Mercy and shakes her hand tight, though is surprised when she squishes his hand. He lets go and shakes his hurt hand, "I will be piloting this baby during the demonstration. I have over fifty hours of practice with the simulation and I am completely synchronized. According to Dr. Vale anyway." He is talking about Dr. Emmett Vale who along with Dr. John Irons created the LWM1 suit and it's brain interface control system.

"I'm sure you are Sargent. Mr. Luthor has complete faith in you. Do not let him down."

General Lane who feels ignored moves in closer to Mercy and pushes Corben away, "Contact Mr. Luthor. I want to speak to him before the conference. Is that understood."

The general would intimidate most men but Mercy does not weaver, this is nothing she cannot handle. She nods and takes out her phone. "Hello Mr Luthor. Sorry for bothering you." There is a pause. "I understand sure but General Lane wishes to see you." And another pause. "I have told him that but the general is insistent to speak to you in person before the conference." She nods her head, "Yes thank you sir."

Mercy looks over at the general with cold piercing eyes, she then speaks to him in an irritated voice. "Come with me. Lex will speak to you." She starts walking looks back to see Corben and others following her and the General, "Only you, the Sargent will wait here."

"Stand down I will see Lex alone." The general orders and then follows Mercy.

Mercy leads General Lane into the back of the convention Center and then up to the third floor where all the offices are. As she leads him to Lex they turn down a corridor and the lights start getting dimmer and dimmer, it is for Lex's protection as the general is well aware. They reach the end of the corridor to a door with an electronic lock. It is the only office with a lock on this floor and has a sign marked private and one below it saying now bright lights. Mercy takes out her key card and unlocks the door, "Give me a second." She says to the General before walking into the room.

The room is nearly pitch black, there is dim red light in the room that illuminates the surfaces so people don't trip but they still can't see details. Mercy pulls out a pair of yellow tinted glasses and her eyesight in this area improves. "Lex."

Lex Luthor is sitting at a desk with his head down deep in thought. He is always deep in thought especially when he is not working. He looks up and smiles, it is a creepy smile, all his smiles are creepy. He can see Mercy perfectly without any special eye wear. "So the general would not take no for an answer. Fine send him in."

Mercy opens the door again and the general grabs it and enters. Walking into the room the general can't see anything. He makes out a shape at the desk that might be Lex Luthor but it could be anyone. "How do I know that's Lex?"

"You know my voice general." A low scraping voice said. Lex is in constant pain when he talks, he alters his voice during public announcements so few people know Lex's real voice. The general along with Mercy is one of those people. "But if you need more proof. Mercy." He snaps his fingers.

Mercy hands the general a pair of glasses and the general puts them on. He can suddenly make out features and knows the man sitting at the desk is none other then Lex Luthor. "Thank you for seeing me Mr. Luthor."

"I hate being disturbed you know that. Make it quick." Lex is a very private person, his conduction makes human contact hard and so outside Mercy he stays alone for the most part.

"It is about this presentation. I don't know how wise it is to have the demonstration of the LWM1 open to the public."

"I agree. This is my brother's idea. Take it up with him." Lex really does not care one way or the other. He is already thinking of ways to use this to his advantage.

"I did. I don't really agree with what Kent is doing. His response is that Luthor Corporation is an open book, every thing we develop should be open for the world to see." General Lane said those words with bile in his voice, "Idealistic crap. He's worse then your father."

"Hey Kent is not stopping me making weapons for you. He can't. So I threw him a bone. The convention center is part of Luthor Media which he owns." The will was a pretty clean Split. Lex gained Luthor Technologies, Kent got Luthor Media and Lena received Luthor medical. Of course Lena's control is in name only and really Lex and Kent co own Luthor Medical, that's fine.

"I still don't like it. What if something happens? Corben has had plenty of hours in the simulator with the mental controls but I still don't think he's ready. He has never tested the real mental up link which Dr. Vale says he should have before we present the LWM to the public."

"Vale is a worry wort." Lex ignored Vale and Iron's warnings that there should be more tests on the LWM1 armor and the up link before a true demonstration. That Corben should experience the suit in a test environment first. Lex ignored both of them. He does not have the time for that. "There are plenty of fail safe's, everything's fine. Corben is mentally sound right?"

General Lane nods, "Corben is the best pilot I have, he is sound in body and mind."

"Then we have nothing to worry about now do we. The technology is sound, the human element is sound. We won't fail." Lex stops with that.

The general does not share Lex's confidence but realizes that there is no further arguing here. "Thank you for your time." The general then leaves the room.

As Mercy leaves Lex calls for her, "See that I am not disturbed. Thanks to the general I now have a spiting headache that I must deal with."

Lois gets out of her car and hands her keys to a valet after showing him her press pass. "Thank you Miss Lane." The young man says as he drives the car off to it's parking spot. Lois then looks for Jimmy who is not hard to find. Jimmy has multiple cameras on hand and is jumping around looking for Lois.

"AH Lois, there you are." Jimmy says enthusiasticly. "Thank you for this chance, I will not let you down."

"I am sure you won't Jimmy." Lois says not completely certain. She has seen his work and knows the kid is capable of some really good work, he just seems to rush things and tries to do too much. "Let's Go." Lois heads to the door where she is surprised to see Kent Luthor greeting people as they walk in. That man never ceases to surprise her he really is trying to live up to his reputation of 'billionaire of the people.' Kent sees her and walks over to her and shakes her hand.

"Lois so glad I can see you."

Lois moves past him, "This is Jimmy I think you two will get along." She says as she slips past Clark and tries to get lost in the crowd.

Jimmy shakes Kent's hand with both of his, "Wow I'm meeting Kent Luthor, I'm shaking your hand WOW. I'm Jimmy Olson of the Daily Planet."

Kent's smile never weavers, "I know you are. I know all my employees."

"Oh yeah that's right you run the planet now, Wow. Hey I have to get going." He looks around for Lois, "I have to find Miss Lane, this is going to get my big break." Jimmy leaves Clark and runs into the crowd, "Lois? Lois."

Lois makes it to the press are and sees fellow newspaper reporters, as well as reporters for Metropolis's three major TV stations, from Gotham, New York, and other stations, she even sees someone from Tokyo. A huge conference like this brings in reporters from everywhere in the world. She is surprised though that it's open to the public, given that there is going to be some demonstrations for military weapons happening here. Normally that sort of thing is closed to the public. "Must be Kent's doing, he would do something like that." she made it to the press area without running into her father or worse John Corben and she is happy about that.

Lois talks to some of the other reporters for a while and sees if they know what's going on. Lex is suppose to be in the building but no one has seen him in person. Also while he's not going to be at the conference personally he has a new technology that will make it seem like he's there. "Rumor has it Luthor Corp has been working with Queen International to improve Queen's holographic technology." Angela Chan told her.

After a while Lois gets impatient waiting for Jimmy. How hard can it be for him to find the press area? As time is dwindling down she starts to think Jimmy might have gotten lost when she heard his voice, and her fathers. She moans as Jimmy walks into the press area with Sam Lane and Lucy. Lois hugs her sister and then shakes her father's hand, looking at him and forcing a smile.

"Are you hiding from me Lois?" General Lane asks.

"Not at all daddy. I simply saw no point in bothering you." She is relieved John Corben is not with his father, seeing that man once in a day is hard enough. "I figured you were busy."

"I am, I am." As the large man laughs around his daughters he relaxes slightly. " But I always have time for you and Lucy."

Lois stops herself from saying 'where were you when we were growing up?' but figures now is not the time to open old wounds. Her father has been trying to be a part of her life these days though it's too little too late. "What are we going to see a new aircraft?" This is her theory as Corben is one of if not the best pilot under her father's command.

"That's classified." He then looks around, "Though not for long. Damn that Kent. It's crazy that he would want a demonstration of a military weapon be a public event." Lois actually agrees with her father on this but smiles at the idea that someone can irritate her father so easily.

Jimmy is talking with Lucy, stammering over every other word. He has had a crush on her since he first saw her and Lois would love to hook them up. Sadly Lucy keeps returning to the arms of John Corben. "Ah hey Lucy?" Jimmy starts.

"Yes?"

"Would you ah you know like to go for dinner when this is done?" Jimmy asks stumbling over every third word.

Lois feels bad for him knowing his sister's response before she says it, "That's sweet Jimmy but I have a boy friend. John is taking me out when this is over."

Jimmy looks heart broken and looks away saying things like, "Stupid, stupid." And sulks away.

Lois decided right there that she will buy Jimmy dinner as friends, and maybe give him advice about how to find girls. The kid is hopeless but is kind of cute. Her father and sister start to leave, "Well dear I do have to get going." The general walks off.

"I can't exactly be at in the press area." Lucy states. "I want to be near John to give him my support."

Lois looks at her watch, the conference is about to start in ten minutes, she looks at Jimmy who is still down in the dumps over Lucy. It took him months to work up the courage to ask her out he never knew she had a boyfriend even though it's obvious in retrospect. "Jimmy Cheer up, you can't let rejection bring you down. Remember this is your big shot."

Jimmy looks up, "You're right." He jumps up and grabs a camera, "You're right Lois. This is Jimmy's time to shine." That perked him right up. "Yes I will do this. Thanks Lois."

"Jimmy I will take you out for a burger if you don't let me down. I'm counting on you." That should let him know it's just as friends.

"Thank you Miss Lane. You can count on me." He feels much better, he is not going to screw this up.


	3. Flight Test

**The Men who Look Down on the World**

**Chapter Two**

The convention center fills up quickly three fourths of the seats are filled by the time the doors close. A few stragglers find their seats as the lights go dim throughout the hall except at the stage which gets brighter. Mercy Graves walks up to the front of the stage, "Quite please." She says in a cold commanding voice.

The place goes silent as they wait for Mercy to continue, "Thank you." Her voice softens and she smiles, it is a pretty natural smile and makes her seem much nicer then normal. This is her show face, one she uses during situations like this. One of her many jobs for Mr. Luthor is to be his voice for presentations on new technologies. "Welcome to the first annual Lex Corp Technology Expo. I am Mercy Graves." She can hear some muttering in the crowds over the words Lex Corp.

Lois looks at Jimmy, "So the rumors were true." She mutters to him.

"First I heard of this."

Lois nods "You would have no way of knowing Jimmy." Lois has her sources Jimmy does not.

"Yes the name change is official." Behind Mercy the logo for Lex Corp appears over a crossed out Luthor Corp logo. She looks over at Kent who is standing next to another man with red hair and a pointed beard and then back at the crowd, "Now before Lex greets you and we get started I would like to thank Oliver Queen and the good men at Queen International. Queen Int as you might know developed holographic Technology and made it effective but they had their limitations. Luthor Corp was also in development of functional holograph tech but we lost the race. Yet we were going a direction Queen Int did not concieve. So the resources of the two companies were pooled together with hopes of a greater advancement in that field." She motions to Mr Queen, "Oliver?"

The man in the light blue business suit has an uneasy smile as he walks up to the center of the stage. He is a handsome man with a silly looking mustache and beard combo that makes him look like a modern day Robin hood. It is a style made famous lately by the up and coming Superhero Green Arrow, many people in his city have adopted the style. "Thank you Mercy.

"Hard Light Technology or HLT is the result of three years of research between Luthor Corp and Queen Int. It allows for holograms that are as solid as a real object." A holographic image of ball flickers in front of Ollie. He passes his hand though it and then a second later picks it up. "An Illusion yes." He throws the ball at the audience and it is caught by a smiling kid. "But real enough." He motions for the ball to be shut off and the image flickers out of existence.

"Now your not here to see me talking about some cheap trick we invented. No you want me to announce the man of the hour." Queen starts, "Well here he is Lex Luthor."

A man in a dark black business suit enters from the curtain behind the stage. The man has a frown on his face and looks ten years older then he really is.. His gray face is covered with bumps of discoloration from scaring when he was a child and his eyes are permanently bloodshot and dark. He is completely bald and he seems to be shaking with each step. Yet despite that he does not look as bad as people would expect him to. People who have seen Lex in person are taken back by his appearance yet here his flaws don't make him seem like a monster. The technology is working.

Lois figures out that this is a projection of the actual Luthor modified to make his flaws look less horrific and it is working. She figures the real Luthor is in an undisclosed location, probably in the building controlling the image.

"Hello I am Lex Luthor." Like with his form his voice is the same yet different. It does not have that harsh painful feel to it his voice normally has. Again an effect of being modified though the hologram technology. "I am happy to see everyone here, interested in seeing the future of the world I take it. For Lex Corp is the future and the future begins now."

Lois groans he's just as over dramatic as his father. Lionel use to talk like that too she expected Lex to be more laid back but his condition sure did not effect his ego. Jimmy snaps a picture of Lex, he thinks it's great, "Lex Luthor in Person wow."

"That is not Lex." Lois mutters to Jimmy, Lois has seen and heard the real Lex and knows this is not the real deal. "It's a filtered hologram."

"Quite please." Lex says with a harsh voice. "I need everyone's attention. The demonstration is about to begin. As you know Luthor Corp, over the last decade, has proven to be a leader in military technology." As he speaks a large screen turns on behind him. "The Luthor Corp Mark One walker." A tank in a humanoid shape, around ten feet tall, appears on screen showing clips of it's effectiveness in battles. "The Luthor Walker has been a revolution of military technology. And not just the military. It has also being used for police work, for construction, and recently deep sea salvage. However the Walker is now out of date. America's foreign enemies have caught up and created their own versions of the walkers." The images behind Lex shift to show modified walkers in the middle east fighting against the US military's walkers. "There have also been rumors of walker like weapons falling into the hands of the criminal underground but those rumors have not been proven. Ether way it is time to move on with the next generation."

Lois mutters to herself, "And I wonder how they got there. Maybe Luthor Corp sold them." Some of Lois's trusted sources are looking into tying Luthor Corp dealings to see if they are selling the walkers to other countries and to the criminal underground. So far she has found no proof.

Lex looks in Lois's direction for a second but there is no way he could have heard what he said. "Now before I reveal the future of Lex Corp weapons technology I would like to introduce the men behind the tech and their discovery. I introduce Dr. Emmett Vale and Dr. John Irons."

Two men who were standing with other important people like Kent, Oliver Queen, General Lane and so on step forward. One of them is a small older gentleman with a kind face and tired eyes. He is well dressed and walks with a cane. His hair is white and receding. The other man is large, over seven feet tall and nearly two hundred and fifty pounds, he looks less like a scientist and more like an NBA super star. The large black man is smiling and he has a friendly face that does not go with his intimidating build.

The large man stands next to the smaller man and speaks into the mic. "My name is Dr. John Henry Irons and standing beside me is Dr. Emmett Vale. we have developed a new metal alloy based on Titanium, that is stronger, more durable, and far more resistant to heat."

Dr. Vale who is clearly not the more talkative member of this team continues, his voice is far less enthusiastic and commanding as Irons, "The new metal alloy is known as Metal O or as we like to call it metallo. It is fairly easy to make and there will be lots of uses for metallo once it is widely available." Vale almost wants to say something else but Dr. Irons motions for him to stop.

"I funded research of this new stronger metal for the safety and protection for all my people." Lex says walking up to these two. "In addition to the discovery of the new metal these two are talented engineers. Doctors would you like to introduce the star of this event?"

Emmett Vale's face goes pale and Irons gets an uncomfortable look on his face, "I would would rather not sir." Irons says. He has to stop him self from saying anything else. He and Dr. Vale both believe Lex is rushing the demonstration especially the man to machine mental link. It still needs field testing.

"That's fine I can handle it." Lex says as Dr Vale and irons leave the stage. He looks at the two doctors with a stern look, they know they are in trouble. "I give you the Lex Weaponry Metallo Armored Unit number one, also known as the LWM1." The screen goes up into the roof and the roof opens up allowing the sun to shine into the stage. Now everyone knows the Lex standing there is not the real Lex as he does not feel pain being in the sun. Also the hologram flickers as the sun light hits it. Then behind Lex the floor of the stage opens up and a mechanical sound of a platform moving upwards is heard. Slowly a twelve foot tall mecha rises up.

Everyone becomes quite as the machine slowly rises from the ground. The large four legged tank with a large round center that makes it almost look like an alien Spacecraft. On top of the center are large missile launchers and cannons. The mecha has two claw like arms that seem to be extractable. The machine's paint job is green and purple clearly not military issue but Luthor Corp issue. The Machine is not the most impressive looking device in the world but the shock of the twelve foot tall device was enough to silence the crowds.

Lex turns around pointing at the device, "The future of military weapons the LWM1 mobile tank. Like the Luthor Walker it is ideal for every terrain, faster then a Tank, and far more maneuverable. Unlike the Luthor Walker the LWM is composed of a layer of metallo over it's skeleton of steel and titanium, making it far more durable and able to take a thousand times more punishment. The use of four legs as you know keeps the walkers balanced." Lex stops for a second and points to his head, "The LWM has one huge advantage over the walkers, a new development in pilot machine technology, the Neura Link."

Some people got the gist of the technology but can see that most people don't know what he is talking about. This makes Lex happy, to know that his mind works on a higher level then that of most people, that he is superior to them. "I am talking about a man machine mental link." He says clearly. "This means that the LWM will be piloted by someone's mind, that there will be no delayed reactions, no limitations of what the machine can do compared to what the man wants. They will be one in body and mind." People are starting to understand but the shocked faces don't diminish. Such technology was said to be impossible and unethical.

"I am aware of people's problems with this technology and it's application." He glares at Dr. Irons. "But Dr. Emmett Vale had made this project his life works and I have full confidence that he was worked out all the bugs. According to Dr. Vale the the mental status of the pilot must be top notch, he must pass extensive treatments to prove he can handle the stress of the Neura Link with no unseen side effects."

"Dr. Vale worked along side General Sam Lane to choose the perfect candidate for the procedure. Potentials candidates under went rigorous training and tests and only one man managed to pass them with flying colors. A top notch pilot of sound body and mind, Sargent John Corben." John walks up and bows before stopping and stands my the machine.

Lois's heart sinks, she could not think of anything worse then this. She knows John, he is not mentally sound, he is short tempered and abusive. She also knows he is a great faker and could cheat his way though any test, even one to prove his sanity. Lois now has a fearful feeling that something really bad is going to happen.

"Sgt. Corben has spent over fifty hours in a simulator using a prototype version of the mental link and the link has proven stable with little complications." Dr. Vale looks at Dr. Irons with a less then confident glance, clearly he wanted more testing. "Now I am confident in the design team's prototype LWM, I believe that we are completely safe here, all couple thousand of us are safe under it's protection. I am also completely confident in the how stable the Neura Link developed by Dr. Vale is, that there will be no mistakes made by man or machine. Finally I am confident in the abilities of Sgt. Corben, and believe that he is enough to protect us from any harm what so ever."

Everyone starts looking around and muttering to each other, Jimmy taps Lois on the shoulder, "Is he saying what I think he is?" Jimmy says looking frightened and oddly reserved.

"Yes he is Jimmy so get your camera ready."

"Silence please." Lex asks. He then looks over at Mercy, "Ms. Graves would you like to do the honors?"

Mercy nods, "Yes sir." She then pulls out her phone. "Yes that's right it's time." She then looks at Luthor, "The drones have been launched."

"Good." Lex turns back to the crowd, "Four automated military drone aircraft are on their way to this location with permission to fire. They have real weapons." he sees the shocked glances of the crowd and then reassures them, "Don't worry you are perfectly safe in the hands of John Corben and the LWM." He nods to John, "Get in Sargent, it's time to be a hero."

"Yes Mr. Luthor." John says as he walks over to the device and starts climbing in. If you looked closely at the back of John's head you could see a small green hole that looks like flash drive slot on the base of his neck.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Lois says to Jimmy. "Keep your eyes open and make clear shots oh and don't waste shots just in case." Jimmy nods his head. Lois looks around and sees that some people have left, Kent Luthor seems to have slipped out leaving Oliver Queen by himself looking around. "I guess the pampered rich boy can't handle it." she says with a smile.

The cockpit opens up as Corben walks up the ladder and the people watching the TV screens see the inside of the cockpit. There is a seat for John and a small back up manual control but the main control seems to be a computer with another zip drive hook up. John enters the white control area and sits down. The cockpit door closes but his movements are still caught on camera. He straps himself in and moves the computer in front on him and then grabs the wire and hooks it to his brain.

Dr. Vale who has a Luthor Tech tablet computer turns it on and looks at the data, "The Neura Link is go. Human machine synchronizing in five, four three..." He then notions two and one. "We have a go." He says as the mech lights up.

The LWM starts walking, it's four legs moving in a crab like motion, "Okay can you here me?" Corben calls out his voice resonating throughout the convention center.

"This is Vale. Sargent we can here you."

"Good. I'm going to fly above the convention center. I am patched in to mission command." The mecha bends down on it's four legs twenty feet in to the air and then small engines blast it off. He stops about five hundred feet above the convention, "Command I am in position. Where are the targets?"

There is a low buzz and then the audience can hear the command team, "Sgt Corben four targets moving toward your location fast."

"Okay." There is motion in the cockpit, Corben focuses for a second, "Activating the energy field. The light energy field which extends from the LWM can extend around important targets giving them added defense." Corben says calmly and without emotion like he's reading a script.

The automated robot planes fly around the convention center and each of them reach a position and then stop. The four then open fire with missiles firing two a piece for a total of eight. The eight missiles are all harmlessly destroyed by the energy field which flickers with white static light with each impact. The debris of the missiles is destroyed by the shield as they hit it. "The electron shield can completely protect a target from missiles, bullets and grenades, but has a limited power supply of five minutes and should only be used as a last resort. It drains the LWM's main power source if used for too long." Corben calls out. "Command, permission to engage? I don't want to use the shield again."

"You have permission to engage the targets."

The four drones fly off into formation and Corben follows behind them in the LWM explaining the machine's features as he goes. "The current LWM model is not powered by a jet engine and can't break the sound barrier but neither can these automated drones. It's about as fast as a helicopter in the air while more maneuverable, turns quickly and reacts perfectly.

Dr. Emit Vale is keeping a close eye on Corben's vitals, "The mind link is stable." He says to Irons, "Maybe Luthor was right?"

"I hope so." Irons says to his older partner, "I sure hope so."

Corben maneuvers the LWM in front of a drone and fires, "The LWM has four mounted machine guns, with quick up to the second targeting." Firing a stream of bullets he nails the drone as it tries to escape. The drone then explodes.

Two of the drones retreat, their programing allows them learn from their mistakes and the mistakes of their fellow drones thanks to linked AI. Moving out of gun range they fire missiles at Corben.

Corben takes evasive action and maneuvers out of the way of the missiles and then blowing them up with his own missiles, "I can out maneuver missiles if I am careful, thanks to the mental link. If I can think it I can do it." Corben is starting to deviate from the script.

Dr Vale and Irons look at each other and Irons looks over at Vale's tablet, "Corben's getting more reckless like in the simulations."

"Quicker too as I feared." he points to the link which is still stable but now has some clear spikes in mental activity. "I told Luthor we needed some field tests before a demonstration. He insisted Corben was ready."

"I know that Corben did not succumb to uncontrollable rage like the others." Dr. Irons lowers his voice, "The recklessness he gained is more controllable at least at early stages. It just makes him more of a show off. Hopefully he will end this quickly."

As if to prove the doctors wrong Corben starts to play with the two of the drones him while not destroying them out right. The third drone seems to be watching the events unfold and is paying attention to Corben's movements from a distance. It's programing is telling it to observe and adapt. The Sargent does not pay attention to the third drone and focuses just on the two giving chase. This is a mistake he should know better then to fall for.

Corben focuses on the drones he's chasing and remembers that he has to be talking to the audience, "Okay the LWM has different types of air to air and air to surface missiles. From normal explosive rounds to heat seekers to freon missiles, those I might add are used to freeze water and other things. Now for automated targets a heat seeker has limited use but we do have EMP missiles they are a bit riskier to use." There is excitement in Corben's voice he knows he should not use the EMPs for this demonstration, that means there might be a powerless drone crashing on innocent people. He was told to play it safe and avoid all unnecessary risks.

Corben backs off, "If I time this right I can nail two birds with one stone." He says very loudly and with an excited tone.

Dr Vale shivers at those words and the tone of Corben's voice. He looking down at the mind link's stabilization, the jumps are getting more frequent by the second, "No."

As if to agree with Dr Vale the command speaks up, "Sargent are you planning on using EMP missiles to take out both drones at once? That's a deviation from the plan and not wise."

"Screw the plan, no offense but these people came to see a show." Corben looks at the Camera his eyes look wild and his face is red with sweat, "That's what I plan to give them." He does not cut off communication yet but he does give the impression that he is irritated.

Corben reaches his desired location and waits for the drones. They are moving in fast. When he likes the location of the two drones he fires the EMP missile. "Okay wait for it." He says calmly and lifts his finger.

The audience watches in anticipation as the missile fires toward the drones. Doctors Vale and Irons have their fingers crossed hoping what ever crazy scheme Corben has planned works. Lex Luthor stands there watching confidently as if he expected this very thing to happen.

"Now, now." Dr. Vale says nervously.

"Now." Lex says calmly.

Corben's eyes shift, "Now." and the missile explodes in a wave of energy. The wave hits both drones, they spark for a second then their lights go dead, their engines shut off and they start to fall out of the sky. The blast was far enough so that it did not effect the LWM's controls. Now came the important part, Corben realizing he has to move quickly focuses on the two drones and two small holes open up below the mounted machine guns. If you look closely you can see small waves of light emanate from the holes. White flashes of energy that vanish in a second. The Drones seem to be hit by something and then they explode.

Corben maneuvers the mech over the stadium, "See nothing to worry about. I used the white light laser the most powerful weapon developed by Luthor Weaponry to accurately destroy the drones before they could crash. Like the shield it can only be used in limited amounts before it starts draining the LWM's power source." He then looks for the final drone, "Okay okay now how do I destroy you?"

Though to the audience Corben has seemed to calm down Vale is getting more and more worries. He motions for Irons to look at the tablet, "This is not good."

"No it's not, clearly Corben and the machine are starting to reject each other." Dr. Irons pulls out his cell phone, "Yeah this is Dr. Irons, tell Corben there the test is over and send the final drone home." Irons listens for a second and shakes his head, "What." The calm black man raises his voice, "He said WHAT." Irons shuts off his phone.

"Oh no." Vale says looking at his partner, "Luthor?"

Irons nods, "Lex Luthor over rid our command. He wants the test to go on regardless how Corben behaves, or maybe because of it."

Corben plays cat and mouse with the final drone, even knowing Corben's moves the last drone seems at a huge disadvantage yet Corben is refusing to end this. He yawns to the audience, "I want a challenge." He then calls to the command, "The Drone is at threat level seven right?"

"Affirmative Sargent"

"Do me a favor, up the drone's threat level to ten."

"Sir? That is not wise."

Corben will not hear it, "Do it." He then waits.

"It's done sir."

The Drone starts shaking and then it's speed increases. It zooms ahead of Corben firing barrage after barrage of missiles and gun fire which Corben does not evade. "I have shown the fire power and the defensive power of the LWM." Corben's voice is vibrating as he talks. "But not the durability of metallo. What would be the point of this demonstration If I can't show off the strength of that new metal alloy." His voice has a mocking tone to it that seems aimed at Vale and Irons.

"Damn him." Irons said forgetting that he has his anger under control.

Vale just shakes his head, and watches as his Tablet tells him what he already knows John Corben is losing control.

Corben motions the LWM forward and the engines turn sharply. He sends it straight at the final drone a maneuver too stupid for the drone to predict. It just continues to fires at him doubling it's effort to take the Sargent out. Corben does not actually crash into the drone he propels in front of it and lands behind it. Before the Drone can turn around he extends the arms, "The arms are mainly for salvage, for retrieval but they do have combat purposes if used correctly."

"The fool." Irons says, "He knows from level nine and up the drones self destruct if motion activated right?"

"Course he does." Vale responds nervously, "He wants it to explode in his hands to show the durability of the machine. The Machine and Corben are in no danger. It's his mind I'm worried about."

"Have you tried shutting down the mech? If the LWM is shut down the command center would have to shut off the drone." This was a desperate move but it is all he has left.

Vale looks at him and then back at the tablet, "Already tried that. I'm locked out." He does not have to say anymore, Lex Luthor does not want this presentation to end prematurely.

The arm grabs the drone and pulls it toward the LWM. The drone starts to glow and shake, with sparks. Corben smiles as he can sense the inevitable explosion. He looks very confident like a man who thinks himself unstoppable and invincible. "There is nothing to worry about, the LWM can survive blasts a hundred times as strong as..." He is cut off as the screen goes black and then becomes static.

Everyone hears a loud explosion and if they were not already watching the sky they turn toward it. A Ball of fire covers the LWM and the force of the explosion can be felt by everyone in the convention center. The flaming machine rocks though the sky and people wonder if it is going to fall down on top of them, But no one starts to run. The fire subsides and the LWM starts flying downward in an erratic path, "Sargent come in Sargent."

"I did it, all the drones are destroyed. I'm going in for a landing." Corben's says with a really edgy voice. His movements in the mech are quite erratic.

Vale shakes his head, "Corben and the mech, they are no longer synchronized. Or should I say they are too synchronized, ether way these mental readings are way off."

"Sargent your coming in fast and we can't track your movements. Are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine." Corben's control of the LWM looks similar to a clearly intoxicated man driving a car. His movements are exaggerated and his dive for a landing is off. In the cockpit viewer which has came back on line Corben is red faced and looks dizzy, "Okay here we go." What is suppose to be a simple landing is over shot and the mecha heads into the side of the convention center roof ripping off a chunk as he just misses the large hole in the ceiling.

People start running out of the way as they see pieces of the ceiling fall. Many of the reporters are taking shots and taking notes. Some people are helping others but for the most part people are climbing over each other to escape. "Oh no." Lois says looking over at the mecha which is moving strangely and John Corben seems to have lost control. "Jimmy look."

Jimmy moves his camera over to the mech which is heading over to a group of people, "No." He says as he snaps a picture, "Miss Lane we should be getting out of here and get help."

"Wait." Lois says taking a deep breath, she can't look away from the people, she notices her father and sister standing there along with the scientists Vale and Irons, she does not see Mercy Graves or Oliver Queen though. Still she fears the worst as Corben's mech moves closer to the people and then it stops. "Huh."

Jimmy snaps an image and then looks up from his Camera smiling, "It's him Miss Lane.

Holding the mecha by the bottom and pushing it away is Superman. He is a large well build man in a blue skin type suit with a flowing red cape, red and yellow boots, gloves and trunks, a shield with a red S in the center of his chest, and a similar crest in all yellow on the back of his cape. He is wearing a blue face mask with a yellow stripe down the middle on his face, his dark black hair has a strange blue tint in the might of the sun and his eyes are a cool blue color.


	4. Superman vs Sgt Corben

**The Men who Look Down on the World**

**Chapter three**

People start running out of the way as they see pieces of the ceiling fall. Many of the reporters are taking shots and taking notes. Some people are helping others but for the most part people are climbing over each other to escape. "Oh no." Lois says looking over at the mecha which is moving strangely and John Corben seems to have lost control. "Jimmy look."

Jimmy moves his camera over to the mech which is heading over to a group of people, "No." He says as he snaps a picture, "Miss Lane we should be get out of here and get help."

"Wait." Lois says taking a deep breath, she can't look away from the people, she notices her father and sister standing there along with the scientists Vale and Irons. She does not see Mercy Graves or Oliver Queen though. Still she fears the worst as Corben's mech moves closer to the people and then it stops. "Huh."

Jimmy snaps an image and then looks up from his Camera smiling, "It's him Miss Lane."

Holding the mecha by the bottom and pushing it away is Superman. He is a large well build man in a blue skin type suit with a flowing red cape, red and yellow boots, gloves and trunks, a shield with a red S in the center of his chest, and a similar crest in all yellow on the back of his cape. He is wearing a blue face mask with a yellow stripe down the middle on his face, his dark black hair has a strange blue tint in the might of the sun and his eyes are a cool blue color.

Superman looks at the people he just saved, "Okay ladies, gentlemen you are safe to leave." Then moving the LWM to the center of the stage he sets it down. "Mr. Corben are you all right."

"Sargent Corben?" An angry voice says, "Yes I am."

"The demonstration is over Sargent you may exit the tank."

There is silence for a couple seconds and it looks like John might be getting out of the LWM. It powers down briefly before starting back up, "I don't think so." The legs of the LWM start moving and the mech scurries away from Superman. "Now I get to show the true capabilities of the LWM. Drones are one thing but SUPERMAN. That's different."

"This is not smart Sargent. People might get hurt." Superman is standing strong hoping the Sargent will think this though. "Think rationally Corben."

"I know what I'm doing." Corben almost shouts. The LWM's missile bays open and smoke streams from them. Then twelve missiles are fired at Superman in two sets of six.

As Superman destroys the missiles and prevents them from reaching the crowd Lois Lane and others decide it is time to leave, not wanting to be caught up in a super battle. Grabbing Jimmy she forces her way into the crowd and then whispers to him, "Look for a good spot to catch the action."

"Miss Lane we really should get out of here." Jimmy says all the excitement in his voice has long since been replaced by fear.

"I am not missing this story Jimmy."

Superman grabs a missile in each hand and slams them together. He is pushed back by the force but prevents it from hurting innocents. He then flies over to Corben, "Stop this Sargent." He punches the mech not knowing how strong the metal alloy is so he holds back. His punch does not even scratch it.

"Metallo can even withstand blows from Superman. This is why I needed to do this. How else can we see the limits of what we can do." John then launches a flash grenade in Superman's face blinding him. The sensors for the LWM allow Corben see without human sight. He then fires a mid level laser.

Superman stumbles back, the laser is strong, he can almost feel it. Little does Superman know the lasers are generated by the LWM's radioactive power source, a green rock Lex's team have been studying. "I will open this up if I have to." Superman punches again this time this making a dent in the LWM.

"No." Corben turns on the engines and blasts away from Superman, "I will not fall." He fires another white laser at full blast.

Superman dodges the laser and another, he flies into the air trying to get close to the LWM mech. The mech can't keep up with Superman's speed and tries to keep him back using guns, which don't phase Superman in the slightest. Superman speeds in front of the mech hoping to force it to stop. "Corben you don't know what you are doing." He grabs for the LWM but is repelled by an invisible force.

"I know exactly what I'm doing. This shield can't be broken."

Superman charges the shield and punches it. The shield sparks where he hits it but does not break. Superman realizing that won't work flies down to the stage where two scientists have been waving for him to come down for the last thirty seconds. Superman keeps his eyes on the LWM which just seems to be watching him. Corben seems sure of his victory and is waiting for Superman to make a move, "What can I do for you?"

"I am Dr. John Henry Irons and this is Dr. Emmett Vale. We were in charge of creating that machine and we helped choose Corben to pilot it. We had every fail safe in place and this should not have happened." The larger black doctor said. "Anyway Vale has an idea."

Superman looks at the small nervous scientist holding the tablet computer. "Dr. Vale?"

Vale gulps and takes a deep breath, "Well he is wasting power, the more he uses the energy shield and the white lasers the more the power drains. He is draining the power core as it is. But I fear the suit will go critical and blow before the system shuts off. Look." He shows Superman his Tablet. Which shows not only how erratic Corben's mind has gotten but how unstable the core is. "If the core blows it will take out twelve city blocks."

Superman looks up at the LWM and sees that is it starting to glow. Corben clearly does not realize there is a problem. "I won't let that happen. Now how do I get past the shield."

Vale clears his throat, "Well the laser and the shield cannot be active at the same time. He has to shut off one to use the other."

"I have a suggestion." A man from behind the Doctors say. He is wearing a uniform that would be suitable for Robin Hood which has been out of style for hundreds of years. "I was in town saw the incident and thought I could help."

"Green Arrow." Superman says. Normally Superman would not need the help of normal heroes but this is the first time Superman has faced a threat of this magnitude. "It is a pleasure." Superman shakes his head, "What do you have for me."

"This." He holds out an arrow with a small silver orb on it, "This is an EMP arrow it can theoretically short out the LWM turning it off. " He looks at the doctors, "That will prevent the core from reaching critical right?"

"Yes it should." Dr Irons responds.

"As long as the machine lands safely." Dr. Vale adds looking at Superman.

"I can do that."

"Okay So I need time to aim this shot. This is the only arrow of it's kind. I also need Superman here to disable the energy shield long enough for me to hit the machine say five seconds." Green Arrow says.

Superman looks up at the mech then at Dr. Vale, "So I need to get Corben hit me with the laser for a few seconds?" Vale nods, "No problem."

"Come on Superman, chicken?" Corben's voice booms out of the LWM. "Time out's over. I'm getting impatient here. I might start counting the people down there are causalities of war."

Superman has a disturbed look on his face, "I better go. You will have your shot Arrow." Superman flies off.

Green Arrow looks at the doctors, "Causalities of war? The Sargent has gone off the deep end."

"Indeed he is no longer seeing this as a demonstration. Still the man needs treatment and our pity." Dr. Irons responds.

Lois and Jimmy who found a place to hide while the crowds were escaping look at each other. They were close enough to hear Superman's conversation with Green Arrow and the two scientists, Jimmy looks at Lois, "Wow this is a greater story then I imagined. Superman and Green Arrow and now a potential deadly explosion."

Lois looks at Jimmy shocked that he could be enthusiastic about something like this. Then again Jimmy is a huge Superman fan and probably believes they are perfectly safe. "Yeah Jimmy just remember to take good pictures."

"You can count on me Miss Lane."

Superman flies at the LWM with his fist pointed at the mech, "Stand down Corben."

"Never." Corben says firing directly at Superman.

Superman shrugs off the gun shots and then punches the mech hitting it's shield. He punches again and again, "Sargent you need help."

"No I DO NOT." The energy shield is turned off as the white laser is fired at full blast. Superman takes the full blast and continues to fly forward, forcing himself to move though the pain. He needs to keep the laser running for as long as possible.

"Keep at it big boy." Green Arrow says as he gets an arrow ready and then pulls back. He focuses his shot and fires knowing his aim is true.

John Corben does not see the arrow flying toward the LWM he is too focused on Superman, "This is the might of the US ARMY." He forces the laser to get even stronger and the laser cannons start to spark as green energy is mixed in with the white.

Superman can feel pain unlike unlike he has felt before. It is something unknown to him, what ever is powering the mech it's different. He can feel his strength being sapped away but continues to fly straight at the mech, "Come on, just a little longer." Superman says fighting though the pain.

The EMP arrow hits the mech right on the L of the Luthor Corp logo and the mech instantly starts to sort out. It does not lose power all at once, Corben can feel the LWM's systems shutting off one at a time as he can no longer talk to it. "Hello." He screams, "Where are you." Corben just hears silence, his partner is no longer responding, "Command this is Corben?" He gets no response as the EMP also shut off the communication. He is now in a sound proof cell of his own making.

The white laser is cut off as it's source of power dies down from within the LWM. Superman is still feeling weakened by the blast as he took the blunt of a fully powered blast for a few seconds. Superman can hear Corben's screams for help even though no one else can and as the engines shut down on the legs and the mech starts to fall out of the sky Superman catches it. "Corben if you can here me you are safe."

Corben does not hear Superman and is still yelling calling for the LWM to respond, "I need you, please answer me. I feel empty without you."

Superman feels bad for the Sargent and flies down with the LWM and sets it down gently on the stage, there the two doctors, and Lex Luthor are waiting. Superman grabs the tanks cockpit and starts pulling it open. "Man this thing is tough. Your team did a good job."

"Lex Technologies hires only the best Superman." Lex Luthor says with arrogant pride. "How would you like to work for me?"

Superman looks at Lex for a second and smiles, "Are you serous?" He then focuses back on the cockpit door opening it slowly. There he sees John Corben his eyes wide and darting wildly. Yelling for the LWM to answer him, "Sargent?"

John twists his head and looks at superman, "You!" He snarls in anger. "You silenced him!" John grabs for superman and misses not realizing that his head is still hooked up to the dead computer.

Superman goes to pull the wire and looks at the doctors, "Is this safe?"

Vale says nothing just looks at his tablet nervously, Dr. Irons however responds, "The machine's off so the connection is dead. It's safe."

Superman removes the core and lifts Sargent Corben out. It was not easy since the Sargent struggles not liking that Superman has rescued him. "Let go of me." He punches at Superman, "This is all your fault. You silenced him."

Superman just lets the Sargent burn off his anger, he can't be hurt by a mortal man. And besides the Sargent looks like he is about to pass out.. Superman sets the Sargent down and Corben tries to stand takes a swing at Superman and then falls to the ground and passes out. "Get this man to the doctor." Superman says and then takes off into the air.

"Arrogant bastard." Lex mutters to himself. He walks over to the mecha, "Damn alien ruined my prototype. He looks in the cockpit and sees the recording box still intact and smiles, "It's not a total loss though. Vale, Irons this is your mess clean it up." The hard light hologram of Lex Luthor fades away.

"Always the scientists." Vale says with nervous sarcasm.

Lois and Jimmy are still in their hiding space, while they are too far away to hear what is going on but they can see the two scientists, Lex's hologram and Superman and saw the end of the showdown go down. "Did you get any good shots?" Lois asks Jimmy.

"I sure did miss Lane." Jimmy is really proud of his work. He has a feeling that this will make Mr. White proud of him. "I got them right here." He points to the camera around his neck.

"Well we should get going." Lois gets up from where she was crouching, checks her notepad and pits it in her bag. She then starts walking.

"Stop right there Miss Lane and friend." A strong commanding female voice says. It is Mercy Graves, She is wearing her dress uniform with her dark blond hair tied in a bow behind her head, she has a gun pointed at the reporter and there are about fifteen people with her. "You don't seem to be injured. Why are you still here?"

The people with Mercy all look distressed, they are people who were trapped or injured and could not escape on their own. Well besides Oliver Queen who seems to be in perfect condition. He just forced his way in to help Mercy look for stragglers. "We got lost trying to find our way out." Lois says. It is a weak lie but all she can think of.

"Sure." Mercy says with a cold voice. "Well your leaving now."

Lois and Jimmy walks behind Mercy and next to Mr. Queen. Jimmy is looking at the red haired, well build millionaire, "Hey did anyone tell you that you look like Green Arrow?" Lois gives Jimmy a look but he ignores it.

"Yes they have, all the time." Oliver Queen says with a smile. "Also since we are the most famous people in Star City people think we are the same person. I can assure you I'm not Green Arrow."

"I did not say you were." In deed the though never crossed Jimmy's mind.

"Anyway I believe a TV reporter caught Green Arrow saving me earlier today."

This peaked Lois's interest, "Who was the reporter?"

"Don't know, Asian woman for WGTV."

"Angela Chan." Lois and Angela Chan have a bit of a rivalry going on as they often are seen as competitors for the sexiest reporter in Metropolis. Lois acts like titles don't matter to her but she deserves it more then Chan does.

Mercy Graves leads the stragglers out of the convention center and to where the police have blocked off the area for survivors. "By my count this is everyone." Mercy says.

The aging officer with a badge that reads Turpin counts them, "Twelve, thirteen, fourteen yep that's everyone that was unaccounted for. Good no deaths." Turpin walks away and lets Mercy handle the rest.

Mercy leads the survivors over to where other reporters are located, "You two." She points to Lois and Jimmy, "Stay here, I better not see you back in there." Mercy then leads the rest of the survivors over to the medical tent as some of the people with her really need help.

"I can't stand that woman." Lois says watching Mercy leave. She then spends her time trying to figure out what has happening while she and Jimmy where watching the real action unfold. She wants to make sure she is the only one with the inside story. Jimmy Also went and looked around. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful compared to what had happened. Lois spent the rest of the day interviewing people. She really wanted to find Kent Luthor and ask where he went. She wanted to know why he rushed out before everything went bad. Sadly the rich boy was nowhere to be found.

_The Daily Planet 7/12/2012_

**Army Sargent still in coma after convention disaster.** By Lois Lane

Sargent John Corben remains in a coma two days after the incident at the Lionel Luthor Convention Center. Sargent Corben was piloting an experimental weapon called the Luthor Weaponry Metallo unit 01, or the LWM in a demonstration Monday. Due to complications between pilot and machine the demonstration went wrong as the LWM malfunctioned. No one died thanks to the combined efforts of police, convention center security, fire department and the extra help of Superman and Green Arrow. However seventy five people were in critical condition and hundreds more were injured and the damage to the convention center and surrounding buildings will cost upwards of a couple million to repair.

Sargent Corben has a stellar military record and is seen as one of the best pilots the military has. He passed countless mental and physical tests and had fifty hours of training in VR before piloting the LWM. So what went wrong? For starters was later discovered that John Corben with held information to the military, information that would have prevented this incident from happening. John Corben suffers from depression, and has for much of his life. He has struggled to take care of his younger brother, the two of them being orphans who grew up in Metropolis's worst neighborhood suicide slums. John has been seeing a therapist for depression that has been getting worse and worse and hid this information from the military. He did a good job keeping up appearances and it was not known that he was suffering from problems. Had reported his problems this incident might have been avoided.

For another the technology was not properly tested before the demonstration. The LWM uses a breakthrough control system, a mental link between man and machine. This link malfunctioned according to Dr. Emmett Vale. "We knew something like this might happen." Vale stated. "We had to rush the testing, we tested the link in simulators but Corben never tested the link in the LWM itself before the demonstration. The risks were minimal but more should have been done to avoid them. Me and my team take full responsibility."

Vale seemed distressed when I interviewed him and that comment was all he said before I was made to leave. I attempted to contact his partner Dr. John Henry Irons who refused to talk. Irons was fired from Lex Corp Technologies after incident and the doctor has vanished. His family refuses to talk and the only statement I managed to get was from his mother who said that her son refuses to be used as Luthor's fall guy.

This incident was a huge blow to Lex Luthor. It was his first major press conference after his father died and he gained control of Luthor Technologies. What was suppose to be his first time to shine became the first blemish of his life. It makes people wonder if this is a sign or things to come, that maybe Lex not suited to lead the Luthor empire. Lex refused to talk but his assistant Mercy Graves had this to say in his defense.

"Mr. Luthor regrets that the tragic incident happened. All precautions were in place to prevent such an incident. Mr. Luthor had total faith in the development team of the LWM, the mental link and in Sgt. Corben's abilities. The accident occurred due to unseen circumstances. Yes more training could have been done, the link should have been tested more and Corben should have tested the LWM before the demonstration but these things might not have changed the results. The risks were low and no one should have been hurt or killed.

What happened was a sad combination of factors with no one true cause. The designers of the LWM and the mental link are partly to blame as is John Corben, and Lex Luthor Himself. Luthor regrets not shutting down the demonstration at the proper time. He is glad no one was killed and is pleased that Superman and Green Arrow shown up to save the day."

All outside investigation into the incident by the police and the government is at a standstill. Lex Luthor insists that the investigation be an internal process and that Lex Corp will release information when it is found. This stinks of a cover up, that Lex Luthor and Lex Corp is hiding what truly happened so that they don't have to deal with the reproductions.


	5. The schemes of Lex Luthor

**The Men who Look Down on the World**

**Chapter four**

Dr. Emmett Vale has been cooped up in the Lex Corp Weapons Research and Development lab for the last day and a half. He has been there since Lex Luthor chewed out him and Dr. Irons, then fired half their staff and forced the two of them to figure out just what happened during the demonstration. As far as Lex is concerned Vale and Irons were to blame for what happened during the convention.

"I should have stood with Dr. Irons." Vale mutters to himself while he and his skeleton crew go over the damage to the Metallo alloy. Irons refused to be Lex's scapegoat and told him so, he threatened to come forward with information if Lex would not. Lex had him fired saying it would be Iron's word against his and people are going to believe Lex. Vale knew something was wrong when he and Irons met with Lex. For one thing they met the real Lex Luthor and not Mercy acting as his voice or a hologram. It was Vale's first time meeting the real Lex Luthor and he was shocked my the man's appearance. You only meet the real Lex Luthor if something really good or really bad is going to happen. Vale a very nervous man has not stopped sweating since the meeting.

"Sorry John I need this job." He mutters to himself wiping the sweat off his forehead. This is Vale's life work he can't just abandon it. John Irons promised him a partnership in his research but John has no company, no investors backing him and little money. Vale is too old to take risks like that.

Vale looks over the section of the mech that Superman punched and dented. They are studying how much force was needed to make such a dent into the metallo plated suit. "Dr. Vale about the sensors Mr. Luthor made us install into the suit? Well we have received back data."

Those sensors were a strange request. Lex already knew how much force the suit could take and how much the drones could dish out. It's almost like he was expecting something else to happen. "Na he could not have known." Vale mutters.

"Sir?" The researcher says surprised.

"Nothing nothing. Have you compared the data to what we have on Superman's strength like Mr. Luthor asked?" That adds to Vale's suspicion, he has heard about Lex's obsession with Superman and that there were projects trying to figure out the Man of Steel's strengths and limitations but as far as Vale knew the LWM project was not one of them.

"Yes Dr. Vale. The first few punches Superman made match the strength readings known about the being. The one where he dented the LWM, well Superman's strength was three times higher then that."

Vale takes out his tablet and writes that down. He also transfers the data from the lab tech's pad to his. Lex is going to ask him what he found. "What have I gotten myself into." Vale touches the dent mark and follows the imprint of Superman's fist. He is amazed anyone to do this to metallo. The tests on the metal shown it to stop high powered blasts without so much as a scratch. "What is he?" He walks around the LWM trying to get a clear picture of what happened.

"Hey Dr. Vale." A female lab tech runs over to him, "We need you over here."

"Huh?" Vale looks up from what he is doing and looks at the woman. She is part of the team studying the black box data. He follows her to where her team are working. The black box is the main memory of the LWM's artificial mind and it recorded everything that went on inside and outside the LWM. The team is not working, they are just staring at some data they found looking at it with a dumbfounded expression, "What's going on here?"

The black woman speaks, "Neilla Marsh, team leader. We were studying the LWM's hard drive and the data we got out of it. It becomes more and more erratic the deeper we dive into the memory bank. Look." She puts the data up on the screen for Dr. Vale.

Dr. Vale reads the data, the memory files seem normal, "Pilot engaged targets... we took on the final target putting on a show for the people only we can protect... I engaged the new target, it is a war, to protect the many sacrifices can be made." Vale mutters passages from the data as he reads it and shakes his head when he's done. This is his worst fear, "Damn."

"Is it what I believe it is?" Dr. Marsh asks.

Vale looks up at her, his eyes showing great fear, "And what do you believe this is Dr. Marsh?"

She clears her throat, "I believe that over the course of the demonstration, Corben and the LWM were becoming more and more one mind. It was one of the biggest concerns of the mental link. One of the reasons many scientists found it unethical."

"Indeed. I thought I worked that out. I thought I could prevent that from happening. The simulators with the Neura Link shown that a merger like this would not happen if we were careful. That we could prevent such a thing from happening. I failed."

"Don't blame yourself Doctor." Dr. Marsh says, "Everyone in this project thought you and Dr. Irons were right. We were behind you all the way, still are. We are all to blame."

"Yes but I knew this could happen." He thinks to himself 'I have seen it happen,' but does not dare to say that aloud. "I never wanted to make a mockery of god's work, to play god. I simply wanted to make a new method of data transfer and machine control." Vale knows that science is all about making the impossible possible and he should have looked at every theory and not just his own. "However I must face the facts when John Corben was removed from the machine he acted like a man who lost a part of himself."

Dr Marsh and other members of the black box team look at Dr. Vale. They respect the old man, he has been a teacher to some of them and a mentor to all of them. Marsh was an A student in his class during her days at the Metropolis University of Technology. "We will back you up Dr. Vale. You have our support."

Emmett Vale does not say anything and helps out her team for a while looking over the black box data. He transfers the data over to his tablet while making a mental note. He then walks away from them. He hears his phone ring and answers it, "Vale here."

"Dr. Vale." It is a female voice as cold as ice, Mercy Graves, "I am out side the lab near the door of your office. It is time for your daily progress report."

Vale shutters at the thought as he hangs up his phone. He has to show Mercy what he found and Mercy will then bring it to Mr. Luthor. He slowly walks over to his office door that is connected to the main lab. The way he is walking draws the attention of the lab workers who feel sorry for Vale knowing what is going to happen, "None of you will be fired. Luthor has enough scapegoats." he says trying to ease their worries knowing it won't work.

Vale wipes the sweat off his hands as he opens the door to his office. He turns on the light and locks the door leading to the lab. He sees Mercy's back from the window to the hall. He walks over to his mini fridge and takes out a bottle of water which he opens and drinks a third of. He then and only then believes he has the strength to open the door and face Mercy. Mercy grabs the door as it starts to open and forces it open then walks in, "Took you long enough Dr. Vale." She says coldly.

"I well..." He wipes the sweat off his forehead with a towel then offers Mercy his hand.

Mercy looks at his hand then ignores it and sits down. "No time for that doctor."

Vale was only trying to be nice but Mercy would not have it. He closes the door and then sits down behind his desk, "Would you like something to drink?"

"No thank you. What I would like is your report."

Vale hands her his tablet. She looks over his data, "Good, this is what Luthor wanted. Yes." She pulls out a zip disk and downloads Vale's data into it. "You are making up for your mistakes Dr. Vale."

Vale forces a smile, "Thank you miss Graves. The LWM incident was my fault and I will correct it."

If Mercy feels anything from that apology she does not show it. "Well you owe Mr. Luthor for this. If I had my way you would have been fired along with Dr. Irons. The way I see it you both screwed up." Mercy is always brutality honest, she has no mercy pardon the obvious bad pun.

Dr. Vale lowers his head in shame. "I owe Mr. Luthor everything. I am very lucky." Very pathetic is more like it. He wishes he had half the backbone John Irons has.

Mercy gets up from her chair. "You can return to your work Dr. Vale." She walks out of the door and gets ready to tell Mr. Luthor the news. Dr. Emmett Vale is the perfect stooge for Lex Corp. A brilliant scientist who lacks the confidence to try to do things on his own. The type of man who has everything to lose and will take the blame for everything even when he tried his best to prevent it.

As Lois Lane rides up the elevator at Metropolis County Hospital she is wondering why she even came here. "How did Lucy talk me into this?" The last thing she wants to do is see John Corben, even if she does feel bad for him she just does not like the man. Still she wants to support her sister, if Lucy loves this man there is nothing Lois can do to change it. Still she is hoping John does not wake up while she visits.

Lois walks out of the elevator to the third floor where John is resting and walks though the halls to the break room. There she sees Kent Luthor talking to her father. Lois moans as she walks over to them, "Hello dad."

"Hey Lois you made it. Lucy said you were coming." Sam Lane says.

"Well I am here for her sake, not for yours and not for John's."

The General looks at his daughter, "What is your problem with Sargent Corben?"

She looks at her father with a mean look that says, are you serous? She has told her father her problems about John many times and her belief that he beats Lucy and her father never listens. "John is, gah." Lois walks away knowing there is no explaining this to her father. To her father John Corben will always be the perfect man for his daughters. "I can't deal with this." Lois has every intent to leave right then and there.

"Miss Lane." Kent Luthor calls out to Lois as she starts heading back to the elevator, "Please wait."

Lois stops, "Sorry about that Mr. Luthor. My father, sometimes I don't understand that man."

"Perfectly understandable." Kent says in an understanding voice. "Do we ever truly understand anybody?"

"What are you doing here Mr. Luthor? Do you own the hospital?"

"No, I own the Lionel Luthor Memorial Hospital on the other side of town." he says with a laugh. "I am here because Luthor Corp feels partly to blame for John Corben and everyone else injured in the tragic accident. We have paid the bills for everyone here."

Lois smirks, "Guilty conscience?"

Kent shakes his head, "Do you always think the worst in people?"

"I'm a reporter, when someone is a squeaky clean as you are and as powerful as you happen to be then Yes. No one is perfect Mr. Luthor, not even you."

"That is true Miss Lane but not everyone has some deep dark secret." Kent Luthor almost seems to be enjoying this conversation.

"Actually in my experience Mr. Luthor, everyone has a dark secret." Lois decided now is as good of a time as any to ask that question. "Where did you go during the convention? When the demonstration started you were gone. Are you a coward Mr. Luthor or do you know more then you are letting on."

"Oh that." Kent laughs, "Lois I own all of Luthor Media, I had more duties that day. I had to make it to Veteran Stadium for to throw the first pitch. I had to duck out early. I regret missing the demonstration and if I was there I would have helped."

"Only if it would help stroke your ego." Lois turns away from the elevator. She has changed her mind. She will see Lucy and John after all. Arguing with Kent Luthor has boosted her confidence.

"Well I should go Miss Lane, give your sister my regards." Kent then walks into the elevator as Lois starts walking back to the waiting room.

As Lois passes by the waiting room her father is still there sitting at the same table he was at before. He gets up and walks over to his daughter, "Have you calmed down Lois?"

"Sure dad." She says not looking at him. She tries to give her father credit for trying but it's too little too late. Lois walks ahead of her father by a couple feet and enters John's room first. As she opens the door she can hear two voices laughing, her sisters sweet laugh and a weak laugh mixed with a coughing fit, John. So as she opens the door she knows John is awake so she takes a deep breath as she enters. "Hi Lucy." Lois says as her sister looks at her. Lois says nothing to John and she sits down in a chair.

Lucy's smile brightens, "Lois so glad you can make it. John's up."

"I can see that." Lois says in a cold tone.

John coughs and forces himself up. He is sore all over and it feels like his head was ran over by a freight train. He also looks like he has not gotten much sleep besides being in a coma for the last twenty seven hours. "Lois." he says weakly, "No interviews please."

Lois looks at John with a blank expression, was that a joke? John's sense of humor is pretty none existent so this joke he just made is a surprise. It was a joke right. Lois laughs, "I wouldn't think of it john. How's your head?"

"It's better." He says and mumbles under his breath that he's lonely. "I will recover."

Lois looks away from John, if there is one good thing she can say about John Corben he has a strong will, he will recover and he will fight on. She is more worried about her sister. Lucy is not weak but Lois thinks she might be too dependent on John Corben lately. "How are you holding up?"

Lucy looks up at Lois, she has not changed her clothes or make up since the convention and looks like a mess. "I'm fine." she says in a tired voice.

"You need to get some rest." Lois says. "Let me take you home." Lois tries to grab her sisters hand but she is pushed away.

"No I want to stay with John."

"Lois is right." John says weakly. "You have been by my side this whole time?" Lucy nods. "Thanks for that love, you really should go home, get a good rest, get changed and come back with your best face. I'm recovering." Lois nods in complete agreement with John for once.

"That is a fine idea." Sam Lane says booming from the door. "Lucy we are all worried about you. You're not helping anyone by being here."

Lucy looks at all the faces of the people she loves and folds her hands, "Fine you win." She slowly gets up but falls back into the chair, "Man I'm weak."

"Take my hand." Lois then helps her sister up. "Have you even eaten anything in the last couple days?" Lucy shapes her head no. "I think I should drive you home. We can get you something to eat too." Lucy just nods her head. Lois holding her sister up by the shoulder helps her out of the hospital room. Their father closes the door behind them.

Sam Lane looks at John and wonders back and force, "Son I don't know how to say this." He got the report this morning at ten am. He hates to do this to John, whose one of his best men. Sam looks away from John.

John shallows hard, "Sir?"

"You have been discharged. Your record has been reevaluated after the incident at the convention center and discrepancies were found." Sam is holding back his anger, he was duped, Corben had his full confidence. "I don't know how you did it.."

"Did what sir?" Corben fakes ignorance.

"How you have been fooling us all, sound body and mind? Ha. You have been seeking help for the last few years and have been keeping it a secret. You have anger issues, and the depression. Come on did you think we would not find out? You're not fit to fly a plane let alone a high tech tank." What really makes the general angry is he should have seen it, he knew John was not the same since his briother died.

"I am mentally sound sir." Corben says calmly. "Yes I suffered from depression for a while but I got over it. I am the best of the best."

"You still should not have been piloting that suit. You made yourself look bad and worse you made me look bad. Sorry Sargent you have been relieved of duty. You will be able to fight it but here is some advice. You will lose. Walk away with dignity." Sam Lane loves John like a son and always will. Even if for the first time he is looking at the John Corben Lois warned him about.

John sits up, "Sir?" His voice raises, "I will fight this tooth and nail. You need me."

"No I don't." He shakes his dead. "Drop it."

John reaches for the general but is too weak to do much moving. He has over excreted himself, "I won't let this stand. I am the best." He then passes out.

Sam sheds a tear, John is the closest he has to a son. Sam is thinking he might have to talk to Lucy and tell her to leave John. The man is not fit for his daughters. He laughs as he walks to the door, "Lois was right about John Corben all along." he says under his breath.

Just after midnight on Saturday the twenty first at a Lex Corp weapons storage facility all seems quiet. The roaming guard just made his rounds searching block three where storage units thirteen to eighteen are stored and just moved on to block four. The cameras continue to watch block three and the motion sensors are active. The security system would catch anyone trying to break in and steal these what is stored here. Each unit has an individual camera and sensors. There are five guards in the control room each watching a different block. Nothing will go wrong.

Underneath the storage facility are tunnels used to transport the goods to the different units. The tunnels lead to an elevator for each unit and the elevators are study enough to carry fifty tons of weight at a time or ten walker tanks. These tunnels are also monitored by camera and motion sensors but are watched less extensively since access to them is very limited. There are guards at the ground entrance to the tunnel.

If the guards on duty paid close attention to the cameras they would see a flicker for a second to all cameras leading to storage area sixteen and the ones in sixteen itself. This is someone hacking into the computer system and putting the cameras in a loop for twenty minutes as they steal the walkers in the storage room. With luck the job will be completed by the time the roaming guard returns to the storage block in twenty four minutes.

Down in the tunnels a group of gangsters some of them too highly trained for common thugs are getting ready to pull off a heist. Most of the men are dressed in black suits with high tech glasses with green tints to them. Their leader is a tall man wearing a dark green business suit and has a smirk on his scared face. One of his eyes is dead and there is a nasty looking scar coming down it. This man is Bruno "Ugly" Mannheim the known leader of Intergang. He is a very hands on boss and wants to be there during the big heists, "Alright men here we go. According to my inside source from Lex Corp right above us are some Luthor Weaponry Walkers." Mannheim looks over to his men who have stopped. One a smaller man who is not wearing the special glasses or the black stealth suits steps forward. He is wearing a white tech suit and has a special mechanical screw in his hand. "Neider. Do your thing."

"Yes Mr. Mannheim." Joseph Neider walks over to the controls to the elevator. "Lets see." he takes out a small tool in the shape of a screw driver and finds a small hole. He then inserts the device and the elevator powers up. He then types in potential pass codes. "Humm." Neider is a skilled computer hacker but this is his first time working on a Luthor conputer system. "Luthor computer systems are unlike any in the world."

"What does that mean?" Mannheim asks his patients wearing thin.

Neider types for a few more seconds as the elevator starts to move up and the door above them to storage area sixteen opens up, "It means it will take me a few seconds longer then normal. Luthor is ahead of the game."

Ugly Mannheim had Intergang's last hacker killed after a screw up with a military heist. Neider is just the next up and comer in a long line of hackers. His usefulness lasts as long as he succeeds. "Keep up the good work and there will always be a place for you in Intergang. We know how to reward success."

The elevator takes Bruno and his sixteen men up to the floor level of storage room. The automatic lights turn on one by one, and they see the walkers. Bruno raises his hands up high and looks at his men with a bright smile. "Oh yeah, this is the mother load." As they were told the storage room contained fifteen walkers, one for each of Bruno's trained men. Bruno and Neider are the only ones that can't pilot such a device. "Make sure they are functional mark three walkers. We don't want any junkers on our hands. Be quick we have fifteen minutes before our window of opportunity closes." He says.

His men move out and check the walkers. "Sir, these are not mark three walkers."

"What?" Bruno raises his voice.

"Sir. They are mark five walkers."

Bruno's grim frown rises into an even grimmer smile, "This is my lucky day. The current walker model." Bruno claps. "Alright men get in and take them to the elevator. Eight walkers first then seven down to the tunnels." The Walkers are five tons a piece and the elevator van carry up to fifty tons but it's better to be safe, especially when your stealing such important weapons.

The first eight walkers move over to the elevator and everything moves smoothly. Bruno watching the scene unfold before his eyes takes out his phone, "The plan is proceeding with out a hitch but there was one thing we did not predict." He is talking to his silent partner, the man truly in charge of Intergang. Bruno has only seen his partner a few times. He controls the day to day operations of Intergang and gets all the profit. His partner just gives Bruno the resources and influence he needs to make Intergang the force it is.

"And what was that?"

"The walkers, they are not mark three models. They are mark five models. Your source was off. However this is better." Bruno watches as the second batch of walkers move to the elevator. He walks over to the elevator with Neider and gets on.

"That is a mistake in our favor Ugly. I am pleased."

Bruno turns off his phone and smiles. The Elevator takes them down into the tunnels and the walks move into formation in front of Mannheim. "Okay men we have to move quickly. We have five minutes to get outside. That is when the security system reactivates. Remember while the guards at the tunnel entrance work for us if we are taught they will turn on us. Their cover is not to be blown."

Bruno and Neider walk behind the walkers. The mecha move at a speed just above that of a human walk speeds at normal power. That is all they need right now. Neider can picture in his mind the long career he has working for Intergang in the future. "Thanks for the access to this technology Mr. Mannheim. It improves my hacking techniques ten fold."

"No thanks needed. Oh call me Bruno we are friends." Bruno looks away from the nerdy man. Yes friends so long as you don't fail me Bruno thinks to himself. "For now, fail me and things get ugly. I get ugly."

After he finished is rounds searching all five of the blocks the roaming guard Vinnie Delnora, a young red headed man from new york starts back at block one. Being the night security guard for Lex Corp's weapons storage facility is a boring job. No one is going to steal weapons from Lex Corp, the security system is flawless. Still this is a secure job and an easy one. Much better then what he dealt with in New York. "Everyday I don't see those monsters is a good day for me." Vinnie always tells himself.

He searches blocks one and two looking though the windows of each storage unit as he passes by. There is nothing missing, nothing out of the ordinary. The units in block one contain high tech weapons developed for the average soldier. Some are for cops, some for the military, and some are experimental weapons and prototypes that will never see the light of day. There are lethal and non lethal weapons stored here of various types, guns, grenades, rocket launchers, teasers, blades and more. Vinnie likes looking at the stuff and wishes he could go in there and test them but he would lose his job if he did that. He can't lose this job. Block two also contains weapons but these are higher grade and are mounted weapons for vehicles and tanks. Still stuff like the ground to air missiles and other unique weapons are interesting to look at. There are some perks to this job.

Vinnie makes his way to block three where early model walkers are stored. Vinnie has to keep a close eye on these, especially since they are often sent out to different contractors so the inventory changes all the time. Four of the six units are empty and only two have walkers. Unit thirteen has mark three walkers and unit sixteen mark five walkers. The mark five walkers are scheduled to be sent to the Bialyain government to fight against the rebels. The mark three walkers are scheduled to be dismantled and recycled for parts for modern models.

Vinnie looks into storage unit thirteen and checks the card, "At one fifteen AM all is clear." he says to himself as he checks the list. He walks over to storage unit sixteen. He has check it ten times already this night and knows the fifteen mark five walkers should all be in the unit. Looking though the window he sees nothing, "What?" Vinnie does a double take, looking again, "Nnnno, No walkers." Vinnie presses the red button next to the door and sets off the alarm he then takes out his radio. "The contents of storage unit sixteen are gone."

"Delnora I am looking at the camera to unit sixteen. The walkers are still there. Is this a joke?"

"What?" They actually think Vinnie is pulling a prank? "I am looking in unit sixteen the walkers are gone. There is a problem with the camera. Maybe someone hacked into it."

"Understood Delnora, other security personal will be joining you. The lock to unit sixteen is disengaged."

Vinnie walks into storage unit sixteen slowly. He looks around and his heart sinks. The place is completely empty. He knows someone will be blamed for this, someone will lose their job and it will be him. "Maybe those winged monsters are not the source of my bad luck. Maybe it's me." he says as he drops to his knees knowing the worst is yet to come for him.

Lex Luthor lives in his penthouse apartment in Lex Corp Towers. It is a small apartment directly above his office specially made for his condition. There are no windows for the sun to get in and no florescent lights to hurt him. Lex's eyes are well adjusted to the darkness, he can move around it with no problem. He sees as well in the dark as most people do during the day. He has been up for two hours, since six in the morning and has been thinking and planning. That is mainly what Lex does.

He takes his shower and gets dressed. He wears the same black business suit he puts on every day. Lex gets ready for his day in total darkness and silence with no distractions. He then walks over to the elevator that connects his apartment to his main office and presses the button. Entering the elevator he rides it down to the office with a smile on his grim face. He wants to see if his plans have came together.

As Lex walks out of the elevator he is greeted by Mercy who is standing by the door, "Good morning Mr. Luthor." Mercy is holding a bunch of papers in her hand which she passes over to Lex.

Lex walks over to his desk, "I hope so Mercy." He says as he sits down. He looks at one of the papers, a report on the black box data by Dr. Vale, "The final report I take it."

"Yes it gives us more detail on the power level of the outsider then we had before." The outsider is Lex and Mercy's name for Superman. Lex finds Superman interesting and frustrating to say the least. The man is so powerful yet so perfect. Someone with power like that would not be content protecting people, he would want to rule them. The man can't be bought and seems to help people while wanting nothing in return. Lex wants to ether control Superman or defeat him.

"If he won't join me he must be destroyed." Lex says going over the data. "Interesting. What does Doctor Tourp have to say about this bit of data." He points to a passage on the lasers radioactive surge near the end, the one that gave superman the most trouble.

"Ah Nathaniel Tourp has been going over those findings for the past few days. He refused to talk to me about them until just a couple hours ago." Tourp's obsession with radiation and super powers is strange to say the least and his eccentric behavior rubs Mercy the wrong way. That is saying something given that she deals with Lex Luthor on a personal level. "He said that he does not have any conclusive findings but Superman may have a valnerability to radiation. He needs more evidence before he can prove that hypothesis."

"He will get it." Lex likes Tourp, the man is a genius and one of the few people Lex will even say is close to his own level. Close but not on it. Lex then looks at the second report, this one also from Vale. This one about the reconstruction of the LWM and their progress. "Vale is moving too slow on the LWM."

"He says he's going the fast he can seeing as half his team was fired. He also states that it will take a while to find a new pilot for the LWM."

Lex shakes his head, "Vale is only good for complaining. Anyway you can tell him he does not have to look for a new pilot. We have a perfectly good pilot already. We won't find any one better suited to pilot the LWM then John Corben."

If Mercy is surprised my this she does not show it, "Is that wise sir? Corben clearly is not of sound mind. From the data we are getting he should never have been chosen for the job."

Lex does not let most people talk back to him. Most people are afraid to talk back to him, that is why he likes Mercy. She speaks her mind and is intimidated by no one not even Lex Luthor. "Corben is exactly the type of person needed to pilot the device. Besides I don't think the LWM will let anyone else pilot it. How long did Vale say it would take to create a new AI module for the LWM?"

"Six months." Mercy knows what Lex is getting at.

"And how long would it take for the LWM to be operation with the current module?"

"Four to seven weeks."

"Exactly. I have invested ten million dollars into the metallo project and the AI and mental link cost two million by themselves. It would put Lex Corp and it's investors deeper in the hole if we have to start over. So we go with Corben as the test pilot."

"Understood Mr. Luthor."

Lex then moves on. He looks at the most recent report this one from this morning, it deals with the break in and theft of the walker mark five models. "Idiots. You can't trust thugs and gangsters to do anything right. I had the information on the mark three walkers intentionally leaked to Intergang as those obsolete models were worth more to me stolen and then sold though the black market. What do I care if the criminal underground have obsolete models that are below what the cops and military have?"

"Sir?" Mercy was in on the plan, she helped tip off Intergang. "Those mark fives. They were the ones being sent to Biayla?"

"Yes to the Biaylain government to fight the growing rebellion. Col. Harjavti will not be pleased." Lex laughs, it is a harsh laugh that even sends a chill down Mercy's spine. "Well no skin off my back, we can always send him the mark three models."

"Mr. Luthor that would make the military out gunned by the rebellion. The Colonel would not take that sitting down. He will blame you."

"Yes he will. What do I care who wins a civil war in a Middle Eastern country?" Lex is more powerful then most Middle Eastern countries so they do not scare him. Still Lex seems irritated, his plan did not work. Not even Lex Luthor can win all the time and that frustrates him. Still he has a feeling he will still come up on top in the end.

"The mark five walkers are completely insured for theft and there is nothing connecting you to their theft."

"That's not the point." Lex raises his voice. "The Mark Five models are worth more sold then insured. The Mark Threes however were worth more stolen. I have to give that fool Harjavti a huge discount now just to take them off my hand." That is the worst thing of all, he will lose money over the whole deal due to Intergang's mistake. He must fire the person in charge of the leak.

Lex cools down quickly and looks though the final item on the agenda for the day. "Anyway lets see, warehouse thirty four." Ah yes that detail in his father's will. Lex was for the most part pleased with Lionel's will, he got Luthor Technologies like he expected. However there was one thing Lex was not happy about. One Luthor Technology warehouse that went to Kent, warehouse thirty four. "Have the letters been sent out to Strykers Island and Stonegate Penitentiary?"

Mercy nods, "Yes Lex, the wheels are already in motion for the release of those two. It has been known that Milton Fine and Edward Nashton's special talents are needed for special Lex Corp Project. And that if they work well with the Luthor Criminal Rehabilitation Program it will be a step forward in their release. Fine is a model prisoner at Strykers and already the details for his release into our custody is being looked over by the probation board. He should be released with in the next week.

"Nashton is a different story. His transfer to Stonegate is already being disputed. There are people that believe he belongs in Arkham with the rest of the nuts." Edward "the Riddler" Nashton is a repeat offender in Gotham City known for escaping from jail and committing huge eccentric crimes with the intent and purpose of proving Nashton's mental superiority. He jumps between Stonegate and Arkham all the time between his escapes.

"Yes." Lex closes his eyes and takes a drink of water before opening them again. "I expect he is interested in my puzzle?"

"Nashton strives for mysteries and challenges, what little information he was given has interested him. He also realizes it is of his best interest that he does not escape from jail. That you will only work with him on your terms. That too interests him."

Lex needs the talents of both Fine and Nashton if he is going to get his hands on what is stored at warehouse thirty four. He knows what his father has hidden there Lex wants to know why it was hidden from him. Also is that the other thing Lionel hide from him. "Good. The Riddler must work on my terms."

"Anyway Commissioner Gordon and Bruce Wayne are very adamant to not let Mr. Nashton walk free, even under the best terms like your rehabilitation project. Gordon claims that a man like the Riddler has proven time and again that he is beyond redemption." Mercy knows that is not something that matters to Lex. He does not care that the Riddler can't be redeemed. All that matters is that he serves Lex's purpose. That is all Mercy needs to know. So she will do her job and make sure Edward Nashton works for Lex Luthor.

"So it will take a little longer for Edward Nashton to join us." Lex says unsurprised. "I expect he will be out by the end of August. Time means nothing I am in no hurry as far as Brainiac is concerned."


	6. Kal El of Kryton

**The Men who Look Down on the World**

**Chapter five**

_8/06/2012_

"How can you stop us if you can't touch us. The intangible gang is untouchable and therefore unstoppable." A man in a yellow suit says. His face is viable with his small whisker like mustache and darting black eyes. He speaks in a thick french accent and smiles at superman with a mouth that misses a couple front teeth. He is Keup De'veirs a former electronic engineer for Lex Corp. He was one of many team leaders for the construction of the LWM. He was fired along with half the staff for the project.

He got fired before he was caught stealing materials and was able to continue work on his molecule modification experiments. However when he was half finished with his mass modifier he ran out of funds. Now he needs more. The yellow suit he and the other six members of the Intangible Gang are wearing are the prototype modifiers. The modifiers in their current stage can only reduce the mass of molecules and return them to normal, it can't increase mass safely which would be a valued weapon. Still in their current stage they can be useful for stealing. He hired some local thugs and gave them the half completed modifiers and formed the Intangible Gang for this heist. He figured since a Luthor owed him money he should steal money from the Luthor owned Liberty Bell Bank. All went well until Superman shown up.

"Intangible Gang?" Superman says pointing to six people in yellow suits running away with sacks of cash and cops following them. "Good name, they all faded away from you..."

Keup looks around, "What? How dare they? I gave them the power. They owe me."

As Keup is distracted Superman grabs for him and his hand goes though Keup's body. "I am too smart for you Superman." Keup laughs as he points to his head. "I have the brains." He starts to run away holding the money he personally took. "I must remind myself to not hire the street thugs in the future."

Superman uses his microscopic vision to see a small device in Keup's ear. "Ah." That is why he pointed to his head, because he is controlling his suit with some device implanted in his head. Superman flies up above Keup as the french scientist uses his suit to phase though walls as he runs. Superman watches and waits for the right opportunity.

Keup looks up as he runs, "Ha Superman, you cannot stop me."

Superman ignores the French man's taunts keeping an eye on the device. He does not want to accidentally give Keup a lobotomy. Superman sees an opportunity and fires a weak heat blast out of his eyes. His aim is spot on and the device in Keup's ear starts to smoke. "Holy smoke." Keup pulls the device out of his ear and throws it to the ground. "Hot hot hot." He looks at Superman who is smiling at him. "That is rude."

Superman moves down to Keup in a split second, "I can touch you now." He grabs Keup by the hand.

"Ah you think so." With his free hand Keup activates the suits molecule control and he phases out of Superman's grasp. "Ah ha Superman. Another point for me, your superior." He goes into a roll under Superman and runs though a wall.

Superman notices that with out the head control system Keup needs to use the controls on his right sleeve to become intangible. Superman floats over to the other side of the wall and watches as Keup comes out of the brick wall. The moment Keup is tangible Superman grabs the man's right sleeve and in a flash rips it off before the French man can even react. "Fade away now."

Keup stops running looking at his torn shirt. The wires are sparking harmlessly and then stop, "No, no. That is not right." Keup whose only thought seems to be to run away tries to flee, now with his only advantage gone is grabbed by Superman.

"Dr. De'veirs, your technology could have been used for the good of mankind yet instead you use it to steal." Superman says as he flies Keup over the police where the Special Crimes Unit which specializes in out of the ordinary criminals like bank robbers that can phase though walls.

"Blame Lex Luthor, he did this to me." While not completely in correct Keup would have ended up in this state even if the LWM incident did not happen.

"People are responsible for their own actions. Lex Luthor did not make you put on a special suit and rob a bank. That was your own doing." Superman drops Keup down in front of a blond police officer who is looking at Superman with a superior glance and a sly smile. "Detective Sawyer, here is Dr. Keup De'veirs, the leader of the so called Intangible gang."

Maggie Sawyer nods but does not respond. She tolerates Superman's actions so far but the Special Crimes Unit exists to prove that Metropolis does not need a vigilante working outside the law. "Yeah, so what. We got three of them."

"Three?" Superman remembers that there were seven of them, Keup and six others.

"Yeah when you shown up the six goons fled in different direction. It was your presence that caused that. The other three, two men and a female escaped, given their technology they could be anywhere." Maggie motions for the four caught thieves to be taken into cop cars. "That is our job. We will find out who those criminals are and we will catch them. Thanks for your assistance Superman but we have this handled."

Superman wishes he has a friendlier relationship with the police. He would rather work with them even Batman has a working relationship with some of the cops in his city, yet Maggie Sawyer makes that hard. Of course Superman is happy that Metropolis has an effective police force that is trying to prove that they don't need a superhero's help. Still Superman just wants to do what he believes is needed, what he believes is right.

Superman flies off leaving the police to do their job. He flies high into the sky and then swoops down near the outer edge of Metropolis. Maybe if someone has a camera powered by the speed source they would see Superman flying in the Luthor manor and into a window on the third floor. In his bedroom Superman moves at super speed and in less then a second he is Kent Luthor. Kent looks at the clock and sees that it is nearly ten thirty in the morning.

Kent does not have to worry about anyone coming into his room when he is Superman, he is careful and there are no cameras in his room. The staff are under orders to not clean his room which is kept in great condition anyway. Kent is smart not to leave and enter from different places, if he was in his bed room before he had to become Superman he returns to his bed room. Kent is leaves nothing for chance and everything is done to his secret. His room is connected to his private office so he often spends hours in there. He does not believe the world is ready to know that Superman is actually Kent Luthor. For now it is best to believe that Superman is a full time superhero.

While he does not have any official meetings today there is something he has been putting off for a while. Something he has wanted to talk to his good friend Lana Lang about. She is only in town a couple more days so he needs to get this done soon. Kent walks out of his room and is greeted by members of his staff right away. He hired people that respect his privacy and he respects theirs. He is a likable boss, "Mr. Luthor I have been calling for you for a while, we have to leave soon if you are going to pick up Miss. Lang at the Metropolis Hilton." His butler Georg Barton says. Barton is an aging man who has worked for Lionel as the head of the house for as long as Kent can remember, at least as long as they have owned the Metropolis mansion. He is one of two full time employees that work and live in the house and the only one that works near Kent's room. Barton knows his employer is Superman.

"Thank you Georg." Kent says and then heads down stairs. Kent crosses though the dining hall on his way to the garage and takes an apple on his way out. Kent is not much of a big eater, he only has one major meal a day and that's diner. He only eats other meals when he has meetings or the like and just snacks before his lunch. His Kryptonian biology stores energy directly from the sun so he really does not have to eat at all these days. It's mainly to keep up appearances and because he likes food.

Entering the garage Rupert Rexton his driver is waiting for him with a blue limo, as he requested. "Good morning Mr. Luthor."

"Hey Rexton." He says as he walks over to the car. His driver opens the door for him and he gets in.

Before Rexton closes the door on Kent, "So we are picking up Ms. Lang at the Hilton and then head over to Luthor Media warehouse section at the Metropolis Storage Yard?" It was a strange order that Rexton was given and thinks it might have been a mistake. So he wants to make sure.

Kent nods his head, "That is correct Rexton."

"Understood sir." The driver closes the door and then gets in the driver's seat. He knows better then to question his orders but this one is strange. He writes down a note before he takes off, 'Kent is taking a Lana Lang to a warehouse, it might be the one Lex is interested in.' Rexton also works for Lex Luthor and Mercy his assistant told him to keep an eye and ear open for Kent doing anything related to that warehouse. Rexton feels bad having to do this to Kent but Lex is his boss too. He folds up the piece of paper and puts it in his pocket. He then starts the car and heads out of the garage.

The limo drives into the city into the down town area of Metropolis, there it parks in front of the Metropolis Hilton. A woman with long red hair and green eyes wearing a casual white skirt and matching shirt walks forward. She is the famous model and fashion designer Lana Lang dressed in clothing far too casual for someone of her stature. Still some people turned to look at her and other people took pictures, especially when she walked toward the sky blue limo. As the driver opens the door of Lana to enter someone is lucky to snap a picture of Kent Luthor as she enters. Some tabloid reporter is going to have a amazing but inaccurate story tomorrow morning.

Lana sighs as she enters the car. She has recently became disillusioned with this life and has a refreshing look on her face. Sitting down across from Kent she hugs him as the car takes off, "So glad you could pick me up. I'm sick of all the reporters, all the cameras. I need this break."

Kent smiles, "Finally, you have been so busy during this trip to Metropolis I thought I was going to miss you."

Lana nods her head, "Like I would come here without visiting my best friend?" Kent and Lana grew up in Smallville together and were best friends until high school when Kent went to the prestigious Legacy Academy instead of Smallville High. The two kept in touch writing letters and talking on the phone when ever they could but they moved apart. Still Lana is the person Kent turned to when he discovered his powers and first became Superman. He shown up to her house in costume and flew her around the world. He could not keep this secret to himself. There had to be someone he could trust and that person was Lana Lang.

"There is something I have wanted to show you for a while. I don't have much time and the longer I wait the greater the risk." Clark says. "It will take us thirty minutes at least to get to our destination so lets talk."

Lana points to the window, "Can he?" She figures this is Superman business and is talking about the driver.

"No it's sound proof and there are no listening devices, no bugs." Kent focuses his eyes for a second and scans the area with x-ray vision to make sure. Indeed there are no listening devices.

"This is Superman business I take it?" Lana says smiling.

"Yes it is. It's about my origin." Kent has knew there was something different about himself for a while. He knew of his powers for years. At first there were the accidents he should not have survived or walked away from unharmed. He was always faster, stronger, and smarter then everyone. Kent rarely got sick and he recovered much faster then others when he did catch something. It was not until his father died and he first walked into warehouse thirty four that he learned the truth of his powers. He became Superman not fulling knowing what made him special, he figured he was a meta human.

Lana just nods. "I see. So we are not going out to lunch?" She says pretending to be disappointed.

"Maybe later. No we are going to a Luthor Corp warehouse." She looks at him with a puzzled glance, "Yeah that does not sound very interesting but just wait it will be." Kent adjusts his weight and shrugs, "More on that later. How are you? How's Pete."

Pete Ross is Lana's Husband and the twenty seven year old mayor of Smallville. Two years older then Kent and Lana, Peter was a friend of Kent's early on but they moved apart. He was the best man as Pete and Lana's wedding but that was more for Lana's benefit then Pete's. "Content, constantly busy with his political career, he is not going to stop with Smallville. He is happy I'm retiring as a model."

"You are?" Kent has heard the rumors but he couldn't see Lana retiring. She always had endless energy and seemed to always need to keep busy.

"I have gotten bored of it. Besides as a fashion designer I should focus my attention on designing my clothes not wearing them. I can focus more on my art and I can do that at home." She sees the look in Kent's eyes, "I want this."

Kent gives her an innocent look. "What?"

"You were going to ask if Pete talked me into this. He didn't."

"I was not going to ask that."

She gives him her don't lie to me half smile and stare, "Really?"

Kent buckles, Lana knows him too well. "Okay you got me." Kent sighs, "Then I am really glad I caught you today. I might not get another chance. Hey Lana?"

"Yes?"

"I have thought about this for a while and I have decided to have Superman give at interview to the public." Kent takes a deep breath. "I have chosen Lois Lane."

Lana has a cold expression on her face, "Well she's a good reporter I give her that. Not who I would choose though." She then remembers something, "Wait you own the Daily Planet."

"That's not it." Kent shakes his head, "Lois is unbiased, she is not going to alter her interview to serve her own opinion. She will be fair and will tell it how it is. I also believe she will respect Superman's secrets, and not press to hard."

Lana nods, she has gotten that impression from Lois the few times she met her. "You made the right choice Kent."

The conversation went on for the rest of the drive, the two close friends talked about what has been going on recently. Kent talked about his father's passing and the will. About how Lex is doing and how he rarely sees his older brother these days. He talked about seeing his sister once a month and how her conduction seems to be worse all the time. Kent wishes he could see his sister more often but Professor Potter limits her interaction with others. Kent did bring up some of the recent crimes he dealt with as Superman and how the police are slowly coming to accept him as an ally. Lana talks about her life, about the small town of Smallville and how her husband is doing. She also talks about her fashion line and her choice to step down as a model. Eventually Kent comes to realize that that yes it is her own choice.

The limo drives into a warehouse district of Metropolis, Luthor Corp owns about seven of the twenty warehouses in this district. Luthor Corp owns forty five warehouses in the Metropolis area, thirty five are part of Luthor Technologies now known as Lex Corp. Thirty four of those warehouses belong to Lex and one known as warehouse thirty four belongs to Kent. The limo drives up to a normal looking building and stops.

Rexton gets out of the drivers seat and opens the passenger's door. Looking in he smiles, "Mr. Luthor, Ms. Lane we have arrived."

"Thank you Rexton." Kent says as he gets out and then offers a hand for Lana and helps her out of the car. "Rexton we will be a while. You can leave but don't get to far away. I will call when we are done."

"Understood sir." Rexton walks back to drivers door gets in and then takes off.

Kent waits until he sees the limo drive away. He does not completely trust Rexton, there is no one he trusts in this matter. He does not walk to the warehouse Rexton stops him in front of. While it's marked Luthor Corp warehouse thirty four it's not. "Where are you going Kent?" Lana asks as she sees Kent walking past the warehouse.

"That is an abandoned warehouse owned by my father that he has marked as warehouse thirty four. It's empty." He walks over to the boarded up warehouse with no markings. A warehouse that from the outside looks abandoned and in bad shape. "This is warehouse thirty four."

Lana does not understand why they would need to hide this. She mutters something about the rivalry between brothers which Kent heard but shrugged off. "So what's so important about this warehouse?"

Kent does not answer her and walks over to the boarded up door. He lifts up the broken lamp on the wall and underneath is an electronic card reader. Kent takes out a card from his wallet and places it into the reader. He then inputs a code that his father gave him. The boarded up door slides to the left showing the real door. This steel door has two key locks and another electronic lock, all three are locked.

Lana looks at the door, "Wow Lionel really has something to hide."

Kent turns and smiles, "Yes he does." He inputs the password to the electronic lock and then took out his keys and unlocked the other two doors. The door opens up and Kent walks a few feet and then switches a switch that turns on the lights and starts the fans over head.

While the building looks dilapidated and abandoned on the outside on the inside the place looks new and up to date. It's also clean despite Kent being the only one who enters this warehouse. Following Kent down the hall Lana does not see anything strange or out of the ordinary in the building. "So what's the big secret?"

"Secrets, there are two of them, but only one of them is important for now. The ship is what we want." The hall splits going two directions, there is a door to the left with warning signs for high voltage and not to being any electronics to the area. The other direction, to the right looks normal, no warning signs leading to the door and the security seems less extensive.

Lana watches as Kent walks over to the right and stops, "Whats over there?" She points to the left.

Kent turns his head, "That's the Brainiac master computer. It's not important right now." Kent walks over to the door down the right path and slowly opens it. One by one the lights in the large storage floor of the warehouse turn on lighting up the room little by little. There is a large screen in the room that is turned off and many strange looking items. A small device with three lamp like devices pointing down, the base of the device has inscriptions written in an alien language. Next to it is a small green and blue egg shaped object hooked up to a complex looking computer. A few feet away from that device is a much larger egg shaped device, with three wings that look like they were used for flight stabilization. Kent walks into the room and points to the ship and the other two items, "This is what's important."

Lana looks at the three alien objects with wonder, "Wow, so your an alien?"

"Yes, I'm from the planet Krypton." Kent says softly.

"Krypton?" Lana heard that word before, living in Smallville all her life the word Krypton is an important part of their history. The 'Rains of Krypton' is the name of the meteor shower that happened twenty five years ago. Lana was only three months old when it happened but she lost her father in that storm and it's local history so she learned about it early on. "This makes perfect sense." Lana says quietly.

Kent frowns tears form at his eyes, "Yes it does. I came to Earth during the meteor shower. My ship was sent to Earth and remains of my planet followed it. In a sense I caused the meteor shower." Kent Luthor knows he had no control over it but that does not make him feel any better.

Lana hugs her best friend lightly, "You had no control over that. Don't blame yourself."

"You're right of course. I just hate thinking about it. I could not have stopped what happened to my planet and my birth father could not have known my ship would take pieces of the planet with it, or that those pieces would rain down on Earth." Kent realizes he talking to fast and sees Lana is having trouble catching up. "Let me start from the beginning."

"Okay."

"You remember when I first decided to become Superman ten months ago? When I saved Air Force One from crashing into downtown Metropolis? And how when I got home you surprised me by calling my home phone and thanking me for saving the president? I was so happy to know you figured it out, that I had someone to talk to about my powers."

Lana smiles, she has always had sharp eyes and saw things others seemed to miss. "After what I saw you do during our years in Smallville I knew Superman had to be you. However I was joking when I called you. I did not expect you to show up at my house a minute later and fly me around the world. That was amazing."

"Yes it was." Kent walks over to the TV screen on the other side of the room from the alien items. "I learned after my dad died that he knew I was Superman the whole time, and that he was proud of me. He wanted me to tell him but I never did. I never knew he kept this secret from me." He turns on the screen and plays the DVD that is already in the computer. "I was shocked to see a Luthor Technology warehouse in my half of the will, at first glance I thought it was a mistake but I wanted to check it out before I gave it to my brother. Now I know that Lex can't see whats in this warehouse. This video turned on automaticly the first time I walked in here."

Kent offers Lana a seat, "Thank you." She says as she sits down. Kent then starts the message.

An old Lionel Luthor appears on the screen, he is weak looking with his eyes are sunken and blood shot. His hair is white and fading with a large bald spot. Lionel has been suffering from brain cancer for a while when this message was recorded. This was about two months after Superman became active as a hero. It was also the last time Lionel was able to leave the hospital as his health took a turn for the worst shortly after this was recorded.

"Kent my son you already know there is something different about you." Lionel says with a weak voice coughing between sentences. "There were accidents you should not have survived, like that drunk driver when you first got your license. You rarely got sick and you recovered quicker then everyone else when you did catch something. You seemed to get stronger every year, at first you were just a little ahead of everyone else but then your abilities sky rocked. I knew you were that masked man, that Superman, when he first appeared to save the president. I could not have been more proud." Lionel goes into a coughing fit, "If there is one thing I wished though it would be that you came to me. I'm sure you were wondering what was different about you and I could have told you, I should have told you. It just never felt like the right time."

Lionel walks around the room and the camera follows him. There is no camera man just a motion sensor. In his weak state Lionel is shaking as he takes each step and seems to be on the verge of falling to the ground. He is held up only by a cane. He walks over to the spacecraft that brought Kent Luthor to Earth, "This is where I found you. You are not the child of the Kents like everyone believes, their child sadly died with them. You are a child from the stars. I'm not sure where exactly but if that meteor astronomer Dr. Tourp is right." Lionel says Tourp's name with bile and hatred. "Then you're from the planet Krypton same as the meteors. That only makes sense."

Lionel takes out two small objects from the ship, "These two items were sent with you in your ship when I found you. I don't know what they do. They are written in an alien language and I don't understand it." Lionel stops for a second and coughs, also he seems to be trying to remember something. "Also they refuse to work. This small egg like device has what I think is a DNA scanner and it won't accept me. Maybe it will work for you my son." Lionel smiles, "I think the answers to your questions are hidden in these two devices. I think they will tell you who you are and where you came from."

Lionel coughs for a while and then staggers away from the ship, he walks to the door and continues talking, "Before I continue I have to warn you son, be careful. There are people searching for what is hidden in this warehouse. People who will stop at nothing to get the secrets hidden inside. You should move the ship and the other items out of the warehouse before that happens. It is only a matter of time before Lex finds the warehouse. He does not care about the ship though. No he wants the Brainiac master computer, which sadly can't be moved." Lionel walks out of the room with the camera still following him and heads to the other part of the warehouse. Kent turns off the video.

"Why did you cut it off?" Lana asks.

"It's better if you don't know that. It's family business." Kent does not want to put Lana into any more danger then he already has. "Besides this is more important. I know what these things are." He walks over to the small egg shaped device. "This is a repository of my planet's history and knowledge. It is a computer called E-tor and as my father theorized it indeed only works for Kryptonians."

Lana nods, "So who are you Kent Luthor?"

"I am Kal El, Son of Jor El of Kryptonopolis the capital of Krypton. I am about to show you the message my birth father left me." Kent will always see Lionel as his real father, the one who raised him. He presses his palm up to E-tor's green top. The top glows orange and makes in imprint of his hand.

A projection of a blue nondescript, and blurry face appears above the egg shaped device as Kent moves his hand away, "Welcome back Kal El." A soft, kind static riddled voice says looking at Kent. The face sees Lana, and back at Kent, "Master Kal is she with you?"

Lana laughs, "Master Kal? I can't see you as a master." It is a kind laugh toward a friend which means no disrespect.

"Yes E-tor." Kent says ignoring Lana, "She is with me. I keep no secrets from Lana"

E-tor nods and then looks at Lana, "I am E-tor, I am Krypton."

"Nice to meet you E-tor." Lana waves to him since E-tor has no arm to shake.

E-tor looks at her with a puzzled look, it then moves over to Kent, "Master Kal why have you activated me? Is it time for a memory update already?"

Kent looks at Lana, "E-tor has been trying to restore his data since I activated him. E-tor can explain it better. Yes E-tor give me a status update."

"There was a loss of data due to the nature of the landing on this planet. I was corrupted as I entered the atmosphere and part of my data was expunged. I have recovered eighty one percent of my data." The computer head raises it's eyebrow, "I have came up with a conclusion to what happened to the rest of the data. It is a 90% certainty. Should I go ahead?"

Kent sees himself as a bridge between Lana and E-tor so Lana can understand better. "Apparently E-tor was damaged during our trip to earth and lost some of it's data. We have been attempting to recover it but E-tor believes some of the data was lost for good. Go ahead E-tor."

"I do not believe the data was lost for good." E-tor corrects. "I believe that the data was transferred to a suitable data storage device, a computer here on Earth."

Kent shakes his head. "But E-tor we have discussed this no such computer existed in 1987. None but Brainiac and it was dormant until my father woke it up." Lana is more and more interested in Brainiac and is wondering why Kent is avoiding that.

"That is the only conclusion, the only answer." The computer says, logically that is all it can think of.

Kent knows that arguing with the computer is pointless. E-tor is logic to a fault. Besides that's not why he's here. "E-tor enough about that. Could you play Jor El message one please?"

The blue head nods, "Yes Master Kal." The blue head fades away and is replaced by a life sized translucent hologram of Jor El and Lara Ken's Mother and father.

Jor El is tall and large looking close in build to Kent, but older. His hair is graying at the temples and he has a beard and mustache. He is wearing a blue and red suit with a sun in the center of it, the crest of the house of El. He has a somber look on his face like a man who knows something grave is about to happen. He's not wrong. Lara standing next to him is six inches shorter then her husband. She is smiling but there is a false feel to her smile. She has dark brown hair and light blue eyes, Kent got his eyes from his mother. She is hugging Jor El with one hand. "Hello son." Jor El begins, "I am Jor El and this is Lara we are your parents. You are our son Kal El. You are the last son of Krypton, the only survivor of our planet. You have the potential to do great things. You have a great destiny ahead of you son."

Lara nods, she smiles at her son and looks at him like she can see him. It is a semi interactive recorded message so she does in a sense see him and Lana, "Remember that we love you. It was because of our love that we sent you away. So you can live and so that a part of us and our world survives."

"Yes my son." Jor El continues. "You are Krypton. Along with this computer which is a data base of our history and the phantom zone projector you are all that remains of Krypton. You must honor your birthright but not let it control you. You are a child of Earth more so then Krypton. It will be your experiences on Earth that built you as a man. The choices you made are due to your upbringing Earth. Yet you are greater then a normal human. On Earth's lower gravity and yellow sun you have powers beyond those of the average man. The limits of a Kryptonian's abilities under yellow sun radiation have never been fully researched, or measured. You are a god among these people. On Earth you could rule them though fear or guide them with compassion. You could create a new golden age."

"E-tor stop recording." Kent commands and the image flickers and stops. He looks at Lana, "Well?"

Lana was listening to the whole thing and thinking, "What can I say. This is... wow. So your parents want you to take over the world?"

"Not exactly. It's all about choices. They say I could, I could make the world a better place if I ruled completely. I could stop war and poverty, end hunger, if I took command of everything." He stops, "I can't do that though. I don't have the right to take freedom of choice away from others. I want to make the world a better place but not that way. Not by seizing control."

Lana hugs Kent happy that is his answer, "I'm sure that's what they want. They are not telling you to take over after all."

Kent feels reassured. "E-tor continue recording."

The images of Jor El and Lara start back up. "Or you could just watch the world continues on the path it's on now. You might not want to mess with the progress of Earth. That could be dangerous if you decide to take over but it is your choice. When you were sent off to earth it was the end of their 18th century. It took your ship about one hundred years to reach Earth. In that time you were in suspended animation and will not age. Earth's current advancements are similar to what history states about Krypton in the distant past. The planet seems to be reaching a period of quick discovery and who is to say what their technology level will be when you arrive."

Jor El lowers his voice and speaks a bit more somber, "They are a violent people, one who could benefit from being guided but then again so was Krypton. Perhaps they have to go though wars like we did. They are also capable of great beauty and compassion. Remember it is your home now. You must take the good and the bad Earth has to offer. Hopefully you had good parents and a good upbringing."

Lara then pipes in a final line. "This world will need you Kal El. Never forget that."

The image turns off and E-tor's nondescript blue face reappears. "Is that all master Kal?"

"Yes E-tor you can sleep." Kent waits for the blue face to fade away and for the computer to go dead. "Well Lana?"

"I think I know you better but I have a feeling there is more going on."

Kent nods. "I can't tell you everything. I don't know everything. I know not to mess with the Phantom Zone Projector." He points over at the third item, "It is a prison holding the worst criminals in Krypton's history. From what I understand the 'Phantom zone' is another reality where the rules of time don't apply and every criminal locked in there from the dawn of history to when the planet died is still there. They can never be allowed to escape. I need to take it far away from here."

"Far away?"

"Yes." Kent smiles, "I plan on moving all the Kryptonian artifacts to this place I found in the arctic. It's an abandoned colony hidden deep in the ice from an ancient civilization. I am planning on using it as my home away from home. A fortress of solitude if you will." He frowns, "I just wish I could take Brainiac there. That's the problem."

"You keep mentioning Brainiac. You say it takes up half this warehouse? Brainiac, that's the processor Luthor computers use right?"

Kent nods, "They are based loosely on the real Brainiac. Using a portion of it's specs."

Lana realizes the emotion on Kent's face, it took her a while to pin point it because she did not believe Kent knew that feeling, "Fear. You fear this Brainiac? What is Brainiac?"

"From what I understand it's an alien computer beyond Kryptonian technology. Do I fear Brainiac?" Kent shakes his head, "I don't know. Brainiac is unpredictable, it fights me, and I can't understand it. I can't shut it off, I can't scan it, also the one time I had E-tor try to understand Brainiac it tried to take E-tor over. I cannot destroy Brainiac ether. I tried to once and it predicted and countered all my attacks. I would move Brainiac to the Arctic if I could but it can't be moved. It has integrated itself with the warehouse. Brainiac is planning something and I don't know what. I all can do is keep it from escaping, to isolate it here."

Lana nods, it is fear she understands that. The fear of not knowing. This is Kent Luthor the man of tomorrow, the man who can do everything. "So you are you going to do with it?"

"Everything I can to keep it out of Lex's hands. Lex wants Brainiac, my father told me so. My father, Lionel used Brainiac as the basis of his computer empire, eventually he stopped using Brainiac and stopped accepting the computer's help. It's obsession to be free frightened my father, there is something malevolent about Brainiac."

"And Lex wants it why? How does he even know about it?"

"Lionel mentioned a mainframe computer on occasion during the early days of Luthor technology. Lex knows it's the basis for the computer designs and operating system. Yet he never showed Brainiac to Lex. Lex is very smart and thrives on knowledge. He wants nothing more then to find Brainiac just to know what his father was hiding from him. Even if it's useless. Lex wants Brainiac and Brainiac wants to be free and neither of those should be allowed to happen." Kent does not even like talking about Brainiac in the warehouse and hates talking bad about Lex. He loves his brother and believes he's a good person just misguided.

Lana feels a chill and can't stay here any longer. "Why don't we leave and go get a late lunch."

Kent takes her hand, "You read my mind Miss Lang." he lives her a brotherly kiss on the cheek and then they walk out.


	7. John Corben's new job

****(Notes: I updated the whole story and re-posted it to fix errors. i hope I fixed all the problems. If you find some tell me.)

**The Men who Look Down on the world**

**Chapter Six**

Luthor Arms Apartments, fifteenth floor, Pent house four.

John Corben can't believe his luck, he can't believe that he is happy and that things are going his way. It's funny a week and a half ago when he was still in his room at Metropolis County Hospital his life hit rock bottom and he thought things would never look up for him again. "This is the life I always wanted for us Roger." He says to a small Polaroid image of his deceased brother. "I told you we would move up in the world, I always said I would will protect you, that I will always watch out for you." He had failed to do that and now he is living for two.

John has been thinking about Roger for a while now. The third anniversary of his brother's death came and went when he was still recovering from the LWM incident. John's anger was reaching a boiling point at that time what with General Lane telling him that he was discharged from the Air Force. John had always worked to be the best for his brother, so that they could have a good life.

Roger Corben was the only family John cared about. When he was seven and Roger was five their parents were killed in a jewelry store robbery gone wrong. His mom worked as a clerk at the store. After that John and Roger were sent to their abusive uncle and drugged out aunt Tag and Eloise Corben. Tag lived in Metropolis worst neighborhood of Suicide Slums with no intention of ever leaving. He was the type of scum that was satisfied with his life. He beat his wife regularly, it's because of him she had three miscarries and then was rendered unable to have children. John and Roger were just two more targets for Tag and from an early age John decided to protect his brother from his uncle, so he took the blunt of the beatings.

John and Roger both made a pledge that they would leave their uncle and suicide slums behind as soon as they could. That they will make a good life for themselves. They took their beatings in stride since they knew early on no one would listen to them. Tag was a bar owner who gave special deals to cops and under the table bribes. He also knew how to talk his way out of anything. So John focused in school and in sports, he was average in intelligence but saw talent in athletics early on. Roger was the smart one but lacked common sense. Roger soon fell in with the wrong crowd.

"Had only you made it Roger. Well one of us got out and look at me now." John laughs to the picture, "And I thought the Military was my golden ticket. No that just lead to another disappointment, another failure." John became a pilot because he saw flying as a way to be free. He wanted nothing more then to be free and now he is. It was not the military that was his key to freedom no it was Lex Luthor.

John sets the picture down, he looks around his well furnished room. Never in his life had he expected furniture of this caliber would be his, antique chairs and cabinets that must have cost the designer a fortune. The room looks straight out of a castle and his whole apartment looks like this, "It's all mine." This was just one of the perks that came with his new job. He does not have to pay for rent, or for food or any of the bills, Lex Corp is paying for everything. John still has trouble believing it actually happened, he thinks he could wake up at any time. He thinks back on the day he left the hospital over and over in his head, it was amazing.

John Corben was down in the dumps as he left the hospital. No one came to see him as he signed out, he had no family and thought he probably did not have a girlfriend anymore. If the general was mad at him then his relationship Lucy was over. That made John feel worse. John had called a cab after he signed himself out and was waiting for it near the front entrance when a large black limo pulled out. The limo had the logo of Lex Corp on the doors and as a hood ornament. John just ignored it and went on with waiting for his cab when the driver who turned out to be Mercy Graves walked over to him. Mercy looked at him with her cold blue eyes, "Mr. Corben." She says with a commanding tone.

John looks up, he remembered Lex's chief assistant, this woman is Lex's eyes and ears. He wondered what she was doing here and what she wanted with him. John expected the worst, that this was another fate kicking him while he was down. "What? Does Lex Luthor want me dead?" He says coldly, that would not have surprised him.

"Why would you think that Mr. Corben? You impressed Mr. Luthor. That is a rare occurrence."

John scoffs at that with disbelief, "Yeah right" John looks away and waits for Mercy to leave, when she does not he ads, "What does he want?"

"He wants to see you Mr. Corben. He has an offer for you."

John is slightly intrigued but he is not convinced. "Lex Luthor has an offer for me?"

"Yes."

John does not know if he wants to laugh or cry. Ether way he is not sure he believes this. After what he has been though he has every right to laugh this off. He slowly stands up, "Why should I bother?" He starts to walk away.

Mercy knows Lex won't take no for an answer but at the same time he told her to make John Corben think this is his own choice. "Well you can always go to the Air Force board and plead for your commission back. I would love to see how that turns out. Even if you can find another job Well it be one where you can fly?" Mercy gives a slight smile when she sees Corben's reaction.

Corben shutters, flying is his life. There is nothing he wants more then to be back in the air and be free. No job on the ground will be the same to John, flying is his life. "Probably not."

"You want to fly again right?" Mercy knows John's answer.

"I would do anything to fly again. It's my life."

"That is why you should take Mr. Luthor's offer. He will allow you to fly again. To live again."

John smiles, "Well I have nothing to lose." He heads over to the limo.

Mercy nods slightly moving faster then John and opening the door in front of him. "Here you go Mr. Corben." Mercy does not like being a limo driver but as Lex's personal assistant and his eyes and ears she does pretty much everything he wants her to do. Picking up people especially unlikable fellows like Mr. Corben here is one of the least likable parts of the job. Still Lex is looking for people with special skills for his various projects and John Corben has a very important job ahead of him.

John gets into the limo and Mercy closes the door behind him. She then gets into the drivers seat. Before she starts the car she rolls down the window leading to the passenger area of the car, "This will be a quick ride. Lex is waiting for you at his office down town. Mr. Luthor does not like waiting. So don't bother me." She rows up the window.

Mercy pushes down on the gas and the limo takes off with a jump. John who did not bother buckling up flew off his seat. Only then does he straightens up and buckles up, "That woman is crazy." John knew Mercy was a cold hearted bitch after previous meetings with her. He tried to flirt with her once and she resisted his charms threatening to remove his manhood if he continued. He thinks she might be a lesbian. Well maybe not after all she seems to be in love with Lex. "Guess you have to be crazy to love a gargoyle like Lex Luthor."

Mercy makes a sharp turn without slowing down or even stopping to see she if she had the right of way and John is pushed to the left and his belt digs into his skin. His head also is slammed into the passenger door. John wonders if Mercy heard him and did that on purpose. "I guess if you work for Lex Luthor you do not have to follow the rules of the road." He mutters under his breath so Mercy does not hear him.

John braces himself for the rest of the ride. He tries to watch out the window a couple times but the streets and people are moving so fast he thinks he might get motion sickness. That would be a joke, a professional jet fighter pilot getting motion sickness in a car. John chuckles at that thought. John tried closing his eyes but that just made the ride worse. The car came to a quick stop and John can smell the burnt rubber and hear the screeching of the tires as it happens. John also feels like he is forced inches into his seat. He settles down as he heads the door open and undoes his belt. He is feels like his heart is racing and his head is pounding, "Wild."

Mercy opens the door and looks in, she sees that John is visually shaken, and her mouth curls up into a sly smile. She offers him a hand, "Need help getting out Mr. Corben?"

John shakes his head, "No I got it." His voice is slightly shaky as he speaks. He gains control over his composure and walks out of the limo. He looks at the building in front of him, the largest building in metropolis, Lex Corp Towers. It is an interesting building that in John's mind represents the huge bloated ego of the Luthor Family. Who else would make a building in the shape of a giant L. He scoffs looking at it but sees that Mercy is not amused. "Okay doll lead the way." John tries to act calm, like he is not shaken and does a good job.

Mercy would normally hit someone if they called her doll but It would not be smart for her to hurt John right now. So she ignores John's comment and leads him inside. Someone opens the door for Mercy but for the most part everyone ignores her. Everyone is intimidated by Mercy, she is the will of Lex Luthor. Mercy likes it this way, she likes the feeling of power and to her fear is power. She presses the button to the elevator and holds it while John enters.

John views himself as a friendly person but he's not really in a friendly mood. He does smile at the receptionist who smiles and waves back at him. He has flirted with her plenty of times but not today. He gets into the elevator and watches Mercy. Mercy takes her key card and swipes it in the button panel, there are some floors you can only access with certain levels of clearance. Some options appear on the touch pad that were not there before. She presses the button for the fifty third floor. There is one question John wanted to ask but had trouble saying it, he wonders if he is going to see the real Lex. Na no one sees the real Lex it will be a hologram.

The elevator stops on the fifty third floor and Mercy walks out with John behind her. This floor is pretty empty, there is the occasional office clerk and repair man but given the number of people employed at Lex Corp towers this place is a grave yard, "This is one of Lex's private floors. Only people he trusts walk these halls. His office is on this floor." Mercy answers the question John could not ask.

"So does that mean I am meeting the real Lex Luthor." John asks.

"Yes, given your abilities Lex whats to interview you personally." Mercy does not look at John, she continues walking and turns down a corridor, the lights grow dimer as Mercy leads john to Lex's office. Mercy stops before it gets too dark and pulls out a special pair of glasses. She hands it a pair to John after she puts her own on, "The lights will be off from here. These glasses will help you to see."

John nods and takes the glasses, he knows about Lex's special condition, it's common knowledge. Mercy leads him to a door at the end of the hall and presses a button, "Mr. Luthor your appointment is here."

"Send him in." A horse voice responds on the other side of the door. Mercy opens the door and she and John walk into Lex Luthor's large office. Lex is sitting on his desk at the other side of the room looking over a computer, the computer has a special screen that can not hurt him. There is a dim red light that hardly illuminates the room and if not for the glasses no details of this room would be visible. Lex motions for John and Mercy to come closer, "Ah Sargent Corben. I am so glad we could meet in person." It is a cold painful sounding voice that scratches at John's ear drums. Lex stands and walks over to him. Lex Luthor then extends his hand.

John is shocked that Lex Luthor wants to shake his hand, he has heard the stories of Lex Luthor, of how the man hates physical contact. They must be fake John thinks to himself as he shakes Lex's hand, he is shocked by how strong Lex's grip is. "I am no longer a sargent, so please call me John, or Mr. Corben."

Lex smiles, the smile disturbs John who has only seen Lex filtered in the past. Even a simple kind smile from Lex Luthor looks disturbing, the smile is meant to be kind but John Corben detects no kindness from this man, "I am sorry to hear that Mr. Corben. You are the one of the best fighter pilots I have ever seen. I have seen your work. Your skills are commendable. The Air Force has lost a valued asset."

John frowns, "Yeah well that's done with. No point trying to undo the past."

"Don't I know it." Lex's smile brightens or in this case seems slightly less dark if that's possible. "Mercy can you leave us. I would like to talk to John alone." Mercy nods and then walks out of the room quietly. Lex walks back to his desk looks back and sees John has not moved, "Come sit, we have something to discuss."

John sits down at the seat across from Lex, "You have a job offer for me right?"

Lex sits down, his smile does not weaver, "Good. You are correct Mr. Corben. As I said I have watched your career, I know you are talented, you have skills that I can put to good use. I would like you to be my personal pilot for one thing."

Being the pilot for a rich man is not exactly the type of job John wanted. However it might be the only chance he has to fly again. "I was hoping it was something like that Mr. Luthor. I would have walked away if you offered me anything else. But before I say yes what are the other parts of my job."

Lex takes a drink of water and taps on his desk, "Good man, you want to see all I have to offer." Lex turns his computer around, "Remember this?" On the computer screen is the Lex Corp Weaponry Metallo unit that John piloted during the convention.

John's eyes open wide, just looking at the LWM makes him feel better, makes him feel complete. The LWM is part of his soul that was taken away from him. "Metallo." He says under his breath.

Lex watches John Corben's reaction, this man is now under Lex's control. "I need a pilot for the LWM, and you are the only one suited for the job."

"The only one?" John knows Lex is telling the truth but does not quite understand.

Lex moves his lap top back and then types in it for a few seconds, "I can't scrap the LWM project. Too much money has been invested into it, too many jobs are in stake." John Corben is one of the few men unaware of how many jobs were lost due to the incident. "I have been looking into my best options and I have two choices. It seems that the AI module for the prototype has chosen you as it's user and that presents a problem."

"Chosen me?" John does not understand this type of talk.

"According to Dr. Vale and his team when you were piloting the LWM, you and the computer's mind merged for a while, be came one. If that makes any sense."

John nods, "Yes it does." To John Corben that makes more sense then anything.

"Well you experienced it so you would know." John nods and is about to speak when Lex continues. "As I said I had two choices. I could have a new AI brain built for the LWM, which would cost a couple hundred thousand and six months to build. That option would allow for anyone skilled enough to pilot the device as well as develop more safeguards to prevent what happened to you from happening again." Lex then lowers his voice, "If that is something that should be avoided."

That surprised John, "What?"

"Don't get me wrong it was not planned for you and the A.I to become one but I think that maybe it's an advantage. A weapon personalized for one person, one that will reject all other pilots. A weapon where man and machine are one there would be no command errors and no worries of malfunction. It would be a weapon that's not worth stealing. I believe in taking unforeseen mistakes and turning them into advantages. That Mr. Corben is my second choice. To repair the existing AI module for the LWM and continue testing with you as the pilot. Of course before we present the LWM to the world this time we have to have you test the weapon extensively. We have to see all that you can do, your limits in and out of the machine." The whole time Lex is talking he is studying John Corben's face, Lex understands people and knows John's response before he makes it. "So Mr. Corben." Lex says as he rises from his seat. "What do you say?"

John rises as well and meets Lex. John shakes Lex's hand again this time gripping harder but his hand is still crushed by Lex's strength. "You have yourself a pilot."

Lex walks over to the door of his office and open it, looking out he motions for Mercy who has been standing there the whole time. "Mercy, Mercy you were on break. You did not have to watch my office the whole time."

Mercy looks at Lex and at John and then back at Lex, "Understood Lex." Mercy does not trust anyone alone with Lex for any period of time.

"Well Mercy, John here has accepted my job offer. You will be seeing a lot more of him. He's my new pilot." Mercy scoffs at this. "Take John Corben to the Employment Office and get him settled with them."

Mercy nods and then leaves Lex's office with John following her. John is starting to feel like his life is taking a turn for the better. For a while he thought his life was over and now things are starting to look up for him.

In the days that passed John was given this fully furnished pent house apartment in the Luthor Arms complex, the best place to live in downtown metropolis. As Lex Luthor's private pilot he has everything paid for. John with a huge smile on his face gets off the couch and goes into the kitchen for a beer. He takes a drink and looks at the picture of Lucy and him at the park in his air force pilot's uniform. He keeps meaning to call Lucy but everything has been going so fast. This is his first day off since he got the job.

The last week was spent with John going though orientation, learning his duties. The private aircraft that he would be piloting is very different from the military planes he is use to but he is a natural so it was no problem for him. The chopper was a bit harder, he had only minimal experience with a chopper and so it's harder to adjust to. It will be what he will pilot the most often though so he is diligently learning everything he can about it.

He met up with Dr. Vale whose team is working hard on repairing the LWM. Vale clearly seemed shaken and nervous, and did not like the idea of John being brought in to pilot the machine. Still the doctor is a pushover and let John return without a fight. John spent five hours a day training in the simulator for the LWM, and another hour being studied by Vale and his team who poked and prodded him like a lab animal. That was not fun, the worst part of the job. Vale's team says they want to understand what went wrong the last time and work to prevent it but John Corben knows there is more to it, he knows something Vale may not. John knows that Lex Luthor wants to try to recreate what happened with John and that is best done if he knows how it happened the first time.

John returns to the living room and picks up the phone. He has memorized Lucy's number by heart and dials it. After three rings she answers, "Hello?"

John takes a deep breath, "Lucy it's me John."

There is silence for a second, "John? Where have you been? I expected you to call when you got out of the hospital. Are you in trouble?"

"Trouble? No Lucy everything is great I have been busy. I have a new job, everything is looking up for me. Can we meet somewhere? I would love to talk about it."

There is a sadness in Lucy's voice, "I would love to John but I can't make it."

Her tone of voice unsettles John Corben, his hand starts to shake, "Lucy?"

"John I was worried sick, I feared for the worst. I know you have been depressed since Roger died, I'm not dense." He had not fooled Lucy? Had John fooled anyone? "I am at the air force base in my father's quarters, I have been here for five days." There is then noise as someone takes the cell phone out of Lucy's hands.

The General comes on, "John?"

"Sir?"

"What's going on? I don't know if I should be happy or worried when you did not return to the base to fight your discharge. You seemed so determined to do so."

"I took your advice to heart general." Now is John's chance, to show what he is made of. "I was given a second chance sir. An great opportunity and I took it. Lex Luthor offered me a job."

"Luthor?" The general mutters something to someone else in the room, "So the rumors are true, you are his new pilot. We need to talk, just the two of us. How quickly can you make it to the base?"

"I will be there with in an hour." John then hangs up the phone. Today is his day. Standing up he walks over to his computer desk and grabs a small box from the top shelf. He opens the case and stares at the diamond ring, "Now that things are looking up for me it's a better time then any.

General Sam Lane is sitting across from John Corben and can't quite believe the way things have turned out. He had expected this meeting to go very different. He, Lois, and Lucy discussed the John situation and decided that if John tried to see Lucy again that they would try to get him to seek help if Lucy was going to give him another chance. Now that Corben's dark skeletons were out in the open there was no more question about his character. At first Sam expected John to call right away, to fight his discharge from the air force and make a big scene. When John vanished Sam feared the worst. His opinion of John Corben really had fallen that far.

The general has to admit John looks good and seems happy. This is the John Corben he wanted Lois to marry, the John Corben he saw as a son. The man is high in spirit right now, laughing with Lucy and kissing her passionately as she looks adoringly at the engagement ring he bought her, a perk from Lex Corp no doubt. Still as good as John looks general Lane can't help but think about the real John Corben, the one he had spent the last month getting to know.

The overly aggressive sports star who took out his anger on the football field and the boxing rings The man with a double life and two personalities who generally had them under control. There was the calm fictional John who seemed like a nice caring man, that's the John Corben Sam Lane is looking at right now. There is also the other John, the fighter, who was a monster on the football field, spent some time in the cage and as a boxer. A brutal fighter who seemed to have no limits, he lets his anger take over when he was in a ring. That was something about John that was well hidden until the death of his brother.

At the time Sam did not think there was anything strange about John's behavior at his brother's funeral. Tag Corben had no right to show up, family or not. John's actions toward his uncle were justified and no one blames John.

Sam and Lucy went to the funeral to support John. John was depressed at the time and removed. All he could do to control himself was take control of Roger's funeral to make sure that his brother's send off was better then his life. He paid for everything using the rest of the money he got from their parent's will, he invited everyone who meant something in his and Roger's life, everything was perfect. John strives for perfection and nothing was going to go wrong.

Of course Tag Corben was not invited, John did not even know where his uncle was or if he was still alive, he never expected Tag cared enough to show up to any one's funeral. He shown up as Roger's body was being lowered into the ground as if he planned it. Tag Corben made a scene right then and there, "The little fagot has finally died and no one told me?" Tag was old and fat, far from the man he once was. He walked over to the grave and spit on the casket. He then took a seat next to John like nothing happened.

John who was already pissed off was fuming and grinding his teeth doing everything he could not to fight. His face was red with anger and he looked like he was going to bite Tag's head off. Tag grinned at him with a smug victorious glance and looked away. John stood to walk away because he did not want to disturb the funeral further. That was not the reaction Tag wanted so he got up and followed John. By this time the priest was doing all he could to keep the funeral from becoming a fiasco but even his attention was focused on Tag and John. Everyone could see what was about to happen, "The big strong Air Force pilot is the same weak little boy he always was." Tag said the wrong words at that moment.

John turned around and faced Tag, his face was contorted by anger and the face that looked at his uncle was the face of a mad man. Tag who might have one time towered over John is now smaller and weaker then John. He just bullied a dragon and pushed his berserk button one too many times. Before anyone could stand to stop John he slammed his fist into his uncle's face. Tag Corben fell down onto the wet grass and John then started punching him in the head over and over. In his anger John seemed to be lost in his own world, "Die you bastard, you did this, this is all your fault. You ruined Roger's life. You KILLED HIM."

John continues to pound at his uncles face as the man moans attempting to speak though a broken jaw. The moans landed on deaf ears as John was is lost in a world of anger. He did not see what is going around him. He is still punching at his uncle and screaming at him as he is pulled away by General Lane and a couple security officers, "John." General Lane says his voice low and full of sympathy, "Son stop, it's over."

John does not hear the general but starts to realize he's being pulled away from his uncle, "No the bastard needs to die." He swings in the air and decks one of the security officers hard.

"No son." Sam exclaims, "It's not worth it." He grabs John's hands and puts them behind his back, "It's over John, he can't hurt you anymore.

With that the funeral was over. John was taken away to jail for a few months for assault and attempted murder until the trial where he was released. Tag Corben was beaten half to death and slipped into a coma for a while, he eventually recovered but suffered from brain damage due to the blows delivered to his head. He was never the same man. No one held John responsible for what happened. It was believed that his loss of his brother followed by the feelings brought on by his anger caused that incident and even General Lane wanted to hit Tag himself.

As part of his recovery John had to see a therapist, he was also revealed from duty from the air force until he was mentally and emotionally fit. What General Lane never knew was that John's initial Doctor came up with the conclusion that John would never be stable enough to fly again, which is something John did not want to hear. When John came back six months later with a letter from a Gotham psychologist with a bill of good health General Lane took it by face value. He was happy to have his golden boy back.

The general blames himself for that. He saw what he wanted to see. Now that he has done his research he has seen that since that incident at the funeral John has taken steps to hide his condition from people. His depression and anger were hidden and John for his part up up a skillful mask. General Lane never expected anything and he prides himself on being observent. 'He never fooled Lois.' Sam Lane thinks as he watches John and his daughter. Sam Lane would like to end this right now, prevent his daughter from going though with this but can he? He looks at Lucy and John they look so happy together, John seems to look better then he has in years.

"You have not said much daddy? Why are you so quite?" Sam looks up at his daughter as she speaks. He smiles at her.

"I am at a loss for words." Sam says quietly. "I am happy for you of course."

"Thanks daddy." Lucy smiles at her father, her face bright like the sun.

'Can I really deny my daughter this happiness just because my trust in John is cracked?' He looks at John and sees the hidden face behind the man's calm friendly expression. Now he can't look at John without seeing the man who went crazy in the LWM, the man who beat his uncle half to death. 'All I can do is keep an eye on him, for Lucy's sake.'


	8. The kidnapping of Neilla Marsh

* Editor's note, I realize there has been a lot of focus on John Corben and for a story about Superman and Lex Luthor there roles are limited right now. Corben will be a side character for a while until he becomes Metallo which won't be for a while. I have a lot of story lines and I'm just trying to put this one on the side burner while I focus on more important ones, like Brainiac. Now here is a chapter dealing with an original character, HA.

**The men who look down on the world**

**Chapter Seven**

Dr. Neilla Marsh is asleep in her small apartment in the New Troy section of Metropolis when she is woken by a crashing sound. She turns on the lamp next to her bed and grabs for her glasses, "Wha?" Her eyes are blurry as they adjust to the sudden light and being woken suddenly. "What was that?" She mutters to herself not completely sure the noise she heard was in the waking world. She looks over at her clock, "Damn it." It's only two in the morning, she has only been asleep for two hours, she has had so little sleep lately. The skeleton crew still employed by Luthor for the Metallo project have been working their asses off to get the project done in time. They have an insane deadline and all their jobs are on the line. She will have to be back at work at six am and these fourteen hour days are cutting into her sleep.

Still she could have sworn she heard the sound of glass breaking outside her room.

She sets up on her bed and listens for noise. She is deciding if she wants to look or if she should just go back to sleep. She thought she heard some noise outside her bed room but can't be sure. She lives alone, has no pets so the place is very quite. She has neighbors but none of them would be awake at this hour. She puts on her bed robe and then opens her nightstand to take out her small pistol. When you live in the city even a relatively safe one like Metropolis it's smart to be protected.

Neilla slowly opens the door to her living room. Her apartment is one bedroom, a large living room and a small bathroom and kitchen. There is shared laundry on every floor which was an added bonus for her. Walking into the living room she sees nothing in the dark. There is no noise beside her own breath and heartbeat. "Your getting paranoid Nell nothing happened." Nell was her mother nickname for her. She has been over worked. That must me it.

The LWM's AI unit was the most important part of the project and she heads a team supervised by Dr. Vale. First they tried to purge the memory with hopes the AI unit would accept other pilots. That did not work so Lex Luthor brought in John Corben. That makes Dr. Marsh's job easier in a sense but much harder.

Neilla is starting to think that the problems are getting to her. That she keeps a cool head at the office but now she is losing it. She turns on the light in the living room and at first sees nothing. There is no evidence that someone was in here until she turns to the door. The small pane of glass near the door was broken, "Huh." She walks toward the front door and twists it, it's still locked, "Could it have been an accident?"

"It was no accident." A voice says from behind her, "Turn around slowly and drop your weapon."

Neilla turns around slowly, and sees two people dressed in black body armor, their faces covered with masks so she can't see the details. Even if she tried to shoot them she's not a great shot and clearly she won't intimidate them. She drops her gun and puts her hands up. "What do you want?"

"We want you Dr. Marsh." One of the men says. Both men are pointing stun guns at her. "Walk over to us slowly."

Neilla Marsh walks over to them slowly, her mind racing. She knows they are not rapists they are too heavily armed for that. Are they government agents? "Why do you want me?"

"Intergang requires your expertise Dr. Marsh." The man smiles and then fires the stunner at her, his partner follows.

As the two electrical charges hit her a thought inters her head, 'Intergang? The stolen Mark Five walkers.' She then falls to the ground and is out cold.

The two Intergang men walk over to her and the larger man picks her up, "Oh I got her."

The smaller man walks over to the door and opens it, "Remember be quiet. We don't want to wake her neighbors." The small man smiles, this job went flawlessly. This type of crime is so much better then what he use to doing. Working for Intergang has really changed his life.

The large man nods and lifts Neilla over his shoulder and then walks out. The small man closes the door and locks it behind them. It was a job well done. The two men leave the building though the back entrance, the same way they came, having shut off the fire alarm. The smaller man is a break in guy who thanks to the technology of Intergang can pull off jobs he could not dream of before. When they reach outside and the large man starts putting the black scientist into the van he pulls out his cell phone, "The mission was a success."

"Good. Hopefully we won't need any more scientists." The voice on the other end says, it's a voice everyone knows, the head of Intergang Bruno Mannheim, "We can't keep abducting scientists and taking one still working for Luthor is a big risk. It better pay off."

The small man turns off his phone, "Yeah it better or I know who will be punished." He will be the one who suffers if he is caught or if Neilla does not solve Intergang's current problem. He gets into the unmarked van at the drivers side and looks at his partner, "Is she secure."

"Yes," The large man says.

"Good." They then take off in the van to the Intergang hideout where the mark five Walker units are stored.

A quarter after five in the morning, Lois Lane had been on her way to work to get a head start on some of her personal projects when the police radio in her car brought up information about a potentual story. She keeps the radio on at all time but it has to be a juicy piece of information to catch her attention. This was one. She took a right on Kirby Ave moving away from the daily planet building and toward the Spruce Heights apartment complex. She takes out her phone and dials the number to the one camera man who lives in that complex, "Jimmy?"

The groggy intern answered on the ninth ring hoping who ever was calling him this early would give up. When the person did not give up he figured it was Lois before he even heard her voice. "Huh Lois?" Jimmy then clears his throat. "Do you know what time it is?"

"Jimmy, there was a kidnapping at your apartment complex. I thought you would be awake."

The word kidnapping woke Mr. Olson up, "It's a large building Ms. Lane. Who was it?"

"Dr. Neilla Marsh, Apartment seven thirteen C."

Jimmy repeats the words, "That's the pent house floor and on the other side of the building. No wonder I heard nothing." Jimmy has a small loft on the second floor, the cheap student discount housing the complex offers.

Lois speeds a red light as she takes a turn down Spruce Street near the apartment complex. She cuts off a man who honks loudly at her and curses, Lois yells back, "Hey I'm a reporter I'm in a hurry." Lois then turns her attention back to Jimmy, "I'm almost there." She pulls into parking lot of the building and drives to the back where she sees the cops, "Police are at the south entrance, that's where I will be."

"I will be there in ten minutes." Jimmy says and hangs up.

Lois finds a parking spot and gets out of the car. She walks over to the entrance as fast as her legs could take her without it being considered running. She gets stopped by a couple officers who are watching the door, "You can't go any closer Miss." A large officer with a gray handle bar mustache says. He raises his hand to stop her. "If you live in the apartment complex it's wise to use another entrance. Otherwise it's best to just leave."

Lois pulls out her badge, "Lois Lane, Daily Planet."

The police officer does not budge, he is about to speak when a female officer in a skin tight blue and white suit with the letters SCU printed on it walks up. "Back up men." Lt. Sawyer tells them. The two men move aside to let Maggie pass. "Lois Lane." The head of Metropolis special crimes task force says muttering. "How did I know something like this would interest you? We are still investigating what is going on here. Last thing we need is a meddling reporter like you sticking her nose where it does not belong."

"Tell me what you know. I know this is the fifth kidnapping of a scientist related to the LWM project in two weeks, each scientist of higher position in the project then the last. Marsh was the first one still working for Luthor Corp."

"It's Lex Corp now." Maggie Sawyer corrects.

Lois does not care, to her it will always be Luthor Corp. "I think it's related to the walker theft, so do you." Sawyer does not answer. Lois notices that Jimmy has joined up with her and nods. "Can we see the scene?"

"No press." Lt. Sawyer says. She has moved Lois and Jimmy out of the way of the door, "They will get the standard report, same one I am going to give you right now." Maggie shakes her head and takes a deep breath, "We estimate the break in occurred around two thirty in the morning. The cameras on that wing of the seventh floor were shut off between two fifteen and three am. By the time they were turned back on Dr. Marsh was gone. The window next to her door was broken and that's how the intruder's entered. There were two of them. Neilla tried to fight them off because her gun was found on the floor, she has a license to carry." Maggie is trying to be as though as possible because this is Lois Lane, she can pick up information you don't tell her.

"She did not fire her gun, ether she could not or decided it was pointless. She was knocked out and carried by one of the men as the other locks up behind them. It is possible that the same people behind the theft of the Mark Five walkers from a Lex Corp facility are responsible for the kidnapping of Dr. Marsh but that can't be confirmed ether way." Maggie then stands there and lets Lois look in her eyes. "That is all."

Lois mentally notes the whole thing, while keeping at eye on Maggie and her expression. She tries to catch any information that the lieutenant is not telling her and can't find any. Maggie is telling her everything. Lois nods, "Thank you." She then looks at Jimmy, "Sorry for waking you up to early for nothing." Lois and Jimmy head to Lois's car.

"It's no problem Ms. Lane." Jimmy's enthusiasm is back, "I probably would be up by now anyway." Which is a lie Jimmy would have slept in for another hour.

"Come then, I will give you a ride if you want. Are you hungry?" Lois knows that was a dumb question, of course he is. Jimmy was happy to take a ride to work and to have someone buy him the donuts for once.

Lois and Jimmy arrived at the Daily Planet building at six, and for once it was the day time janitor and not the night time one who let Lois in. He is a balding forty something Hispanic man named Miguel, "Miss Lane coming to work late." He says with a smirk.

"Yeah well I thought I had a big story." She stops to chat with the Janitor for a second while Jimmy walks away to start getting things ready for the chief. Lois wishes she could sneak away herself.

"No luck?" Miguel is just being nice. He wants to end the conversation as well and is impatiently tapping on the floor with his right foot.

"It was a bust. Now I don't want to keep a busy man like you away from your work." Lois says knowing he wants to leave as much as she does. Miguel laughs as he walks away sweeping the floor of the office while Lois walks over to her desk and sits down. She turns on her computer and while waiting for it to reboot takes out a note pad and calendar from her bag. She looks at her notes, "Iron Works at eleven AM." She says to herself out loud, that is the only appointment she has for today. It is an important one. John Henry Irons one of the key developers of the Walker program, as well as Luthor's scape goat after the incident at the convention.

Dr. Irons is an important source of information o Lois. He was once her inside man at Luthor Corp but those days are not over. Everything Lois knows about the LWM incident and the walker theft she learned from Dr. Irons. She is disappointed that he's fired from Lex Corp as he was a good source of insider information.

Lois had asked Dr. Irons for information on the Mark Five Walkers. Mainly for a copy of the blue prints. When John Irons called her last night he told her that he finally got her a copy. Also that he had other information, maybe something that connects the kidnappings and the theft of the walkers together. Lois tried to pry it out of him last night but he insisted that it was something he had to show her. On the computer Lois opens up a word file that consists mainly of theories and speculation.

'The theft of mark five Walkers, who is behind it? Intergang? Most likely. International terrorists? Possible. Lex Luthor? I would not put anything past him.' Lois crosses out the third one, no one would take that seriously.

'Where are the walkers? Why have they not surfaced? There has to be a reason. They were stolen for a reason yet they have yet to surface in the criminal underground.' She knows Intergang would not steal advanced technology and then sit on it. If they could use or sell them right away they would. That is a strike against Intergang in her mind. 'If they were going to be sold in the black market there would be rumors.' None of Lois's sources in the criminal world have heard any peep about a black market auction for the powerful war machines, something which should be big news. 'Yet there is nothing.'

Now Lois has her ideas while she was unable to get information on the mark five models she had a talk with the head mechanic for Metropolis Police Department's SCU. He maintains the police department's three mark four Walker units. According to SCU mechanic Fulton Grimes the mark four Walkers are high bred machines that use electricity and gas to be more efficient then the earlier models. The Mark three was suppose to be a high bred but the electrical power units were not perfected at that time. He told her the Mark fives use a new power source but did not have the details. She hopes John Henry Irons will fill her in further.

'Could the reason the stolen walkers have not resurfaced yet be due to the power source? Perhaps whoever stole the walkers does not have access to it. That raises another question though. What is it exactly that powers the walkers?'

Lois spends much of the morning typing, when the chief walks in he looks at her computer like he does everyday, "You got a lead on the kidnapping Lois?"

"Not yet chief. Dr. Neilla Marsh and the other kidnapped scientists were all members of the Walker construction team. I believe it is connected to the theft. John Henry Irons believes so too."

Perry White plots down in a chair next to Lois, the reporter that chair belongs to has not came in yet, "You might be on to something. So you're seeing Dr. Irons today?"

"Yes sir."

"Good, that makes this easier." He hands Lois a stack of papers, "I want a piece done on Iron Works, I want to know what John Henry Irons and his new company is all about. Who is investing his work? I'm wondering if he plans on competing with Lex Luthor. Could be interesting."

Lois shrugs, he was wondering this too but she knows that what Irons is working is private. She tried to get information about it out of him with no luck and has since stopped trying. She has a good thing going with Dr. Irons as a source of information and does not want to plug that source in by digging too deep. Still. "I will see what I can do sir."

"Good." he looks over at Jimmy who is cleaning up his desk. The chief has a distressed look on his face suddenly. "Hey take Jimmy with you when you go. You made a great choice using him for the convention." Perry is trying to end the conversation as he sees a picture in his room fall, "I'm thinking of making you two a team."

Lois looks down, she likes Jimmy and yeah he did a good job but working with him exclusively? That would drive her nuts. She looks up and sees that Perry White has left her and has ran into his office and is yelling at Jimmy, "Guess I have no choice."

"You helped enough Jimmy now leave." The chief yells from his office pushing Jimmy out.

"I said I was sorry sir." Jimmy tries to stay in Perry's office holding a broom and dustpan. "At least let me clean up the glass."

Perry snatches the objects out of Jimmy's hand. "No Jimmy I got it. Go buy me a coffee."

Walking out of the office Jimmy shrugs off his feelings of inadequacy and starts walking around the office asking if anyone else wants something to drink. The kid sure did bounce back quickly which makes Lois smile. Jimmy stops in front of her desk, "I'm making a coffee run, need a refill?"

Lois nods, "Hey so you're my photographer now."

His smile brightens, "I know it's great Ms. Lane, I won't blow it."

Lois smiles back at him and nods. She knows he will try his best and he has proven himself as a photographer but he still has a lot to learn. "Just don't get over confident."

Jimmy shakes his head in agreement, "Understood, now that coffee? Black right?"

"Yes." Lois says annoyed, by this point she wants Jimmy to leave. The young photographer gets the hint and leaves. Lois looks up and glances into Perry's office where the chief has just finished sweeping up the glass from the broken picture. She has seen Jimmy's clumsy antics in the past and was surprised by how good he is with a camera. He seems like a different person when he's taking pictures. Photographs are his passion. being a gofer for the staff of a newspaper clearly is not.

The time leading up to Lois's appointment with Dr. Iron's moves slowly. She goes over Perry's questions for the interview, she already knows some of the answers. She does not want to lose Dr. Iron's trust. She will show him the list of questions and tell him she will answer them herself. For example Lois already knows the answer to the first question.

How were you able to get Iron Works up and running so soon after you were fired from Lex Corp?

Lois knows that John Henry Irons actually planned on leaving Luthor Corp for years and start his own company and even had Lionel Luthor funding his move to his own company. He only stayed with Luthor Corp for two reasons. Out of respect for Lionel Luthor and to help his friend and mentor Emmett Vale. Dr. Irons was not fond of how Lex ran the company and would have left years ago but Iron Works was not ready. Even now it had to go public before John Irons was completely ready.

That leads to other questions, one that Lois can't answer on her own.

What is Iron Work's goals? Are you planning on competing with Lex Corp?

Lois knows that John Henry Irons along with Emmett Vale is one of America's fore most experts is robotics and cybernetics. That Dr. Irons was working on cybernetic replacement limbs when he went to work for Luthor corp and that Lex convinced him to put that research on hold. Lois hopes the cybernetic limbs are part of John's research.

The time for her to leave for the meeting comes by slowly, at ten thirty Jimmy walks by her desk with his camera over his shoulder. He grabs the papers, "Lois we better get going. You have that meeting with John Henry Irons right?"

Lois nods and gets up, "You're right." She leads the way down to her car which is parked in the building's basement parking lot. When she and Jimmy are in the car and buckled up she takes off, "I should let you know that Dr. Iron's office in a bad part of town."

Jimmy nods his head already seeing the generally clean city of Metropolis get dirtier with each street Lois takes. The city is starting to look more like Gotham. Jimmy has never been this far in Metropolis underbelly before.

"While the place looks bad many of the people are still good Jimmy." Lois says.

"I hear you ms. Lane."

Lois parks next to a rusted old station wagon from the 1980's near an old rundown apartment complex. When she gets out she looks up at the third story window, an old woman opens her blinds and sticks her head out, "Lois!" She says with a cheery voice. The old woman was dark skin and gray hair, her face has a kind smile, "I think Johnny is in his work shop." The old woman turns away for a second, "Paco are John and Natasha the lad?"

"Is she one of the good ones?" Jimmy says quietly.

"That's Bess Irons she's one of the best."

Bess sticks her head back out the window, "John and Natasha are in John's Lab, that's the basement apartment. They call it Iron Works, silly name."

Jimmy follows Lois into the building while looking around, he is surprised, while they drove though a dangerous area of Metropolis to get here these couple blocks of Duffy street seem perfectly safe. There are kids playing in the streets and parents watching perfectly happy, and the place is clean, it lacks the gang activity and tagging Jimmy saw on the way here, "Strange." He mutters.

"Yes it is." Lois speaks up, "You can thank the Irons family for this, John's father and grandfather were cops. Good men. His brother was a cop as well and a volunteer fireman. They helped keep their neighborhood clean when the city around them started going down hill. John does his part as does Bess and her second husband, they own this building. They rent it out cheaply to people they can trust, run a neighborhood watch and do everything they can to keep the place safe for kids."

"I see but why don't they just leave?" Jimmy asks.

"Many can't and more don't want to. This is their home, they want to make it better not give up on it. That's the cowards way out." Lois leads the way to the basement and stops by a door with a cheap aluminum sign with the words 'Iron Works.' "John Henry Irons is no coward, no one in his family is." She knocks at the door.

"Coming, just give us a second." A young female voice yells out. There is commotion and two voices, one male one female. They are speaking in low voices and Lois and Jimmy cannot pick up what they are saying. After a half minute a young woman opens the door, she is around sixteen years old, and is dark skinned but not as dark as John. She is tall for a female but is dwarfed by her uncle. She has work goggles over her face and is wearing a dirty smock over her jean shorts and white shirt. "Hi Lois." She offers her hand.

"Natasha nice to see you again, it's been too long." Lois shakes her hand and then hugs her. She then introduces her to Jimmy. "Natasha Iron's this is Jimmy Olson, he's an intern and photographer for the planet.

Natasha looks at Jimmy with an untrusting eye but her smile does not fade, "Hi." She shakes his hand. Natasha then lets them into the room, "Welcome to Iron Works."

The large basement room has lots of unfinished pieces of machinery, stuff that looks like half made robots, or incomplete weapons, a few flawed replacement limbs here or there. There is a large device of some sort that is up on a table and is covered by a tarp, John Henry irons is standing over the tarp and below him is a blow torch and wires. What ever is under there is something he and Natasha were working on. "Oh is it eleven already?" Dr. Irons says when he sees Lois standing in front of him. He smiles, "I must have lost track of time."

"That's fine John." Lois tells him.

John Irons shakes Lois's hand after he moves down the tarp. He then looks at Jimmy, frowns when he sees the camera. "I thought we had a deal miss Lane? I will only talk with you and no photos. Even though I'm no longer working for Luthor it still can't be known I'm your informant."

"Don't worry John I don't plan on relieving my source. I will always respect your confidentiality. Jimmy Olson is not here for that reason. Perry wants to do a story on Iron Works. He thinks it's good publicity for you."

Dr. Irons shakes his head, "Perry is a good man and I know he has the best intentions but I don't plan on reviling Iron Work's goals. Most of my projects are too early to discuss, and I am still trying to get funding for the artificial limbs. Luthor has made is hard for me to get a medical company to trust me." He shakes his head, "Luthor had me blacklisted from the entire engineering community. Which leads to a larger problem Lois. The Daily Planet is part of the Luthor empire. So this will be the last time I help you. No offense Lois but now your part of the enemy."

This was not a surprise. Sure Kent Luthor talked about how nothing will change with him owning the Daily Planet and for the most part nothing has changed, however he's still a Luthor. The name means change, the name means fear. People are going to be less willing to help you out when the name Luthor is leaning over them. A lot of Lois's trusted sources have been getting worried and many stopped helping Lois all together. "Kent is not like Lex." Lois starts, it was automatic. She does not know Kent and here she is defending the man.

John Iron's sighs, "I like Kent Luthor, everyone who knows him likes him. However that does not change who he is, who his father was, who his brother is. Like I said I'm sorry. Anyway I will give you an interview and let your photographer take one picture."

Jimmy was talking to Natasha, "So are you and your uncle the only employees?"

"Yeah though I'm not paid." She says.

"Intern?"

"You could say that but I don't get school credits ether."

John laughs, "Don't let Natasha's attitude fool you. She is here because she wants to be. She forced my hand in letting her join Iron Works. At first I hated it but now her help is invaluable."

Natasha Irons smiles, "Thanks uncle."

"But your still a pain in the butt that makes my work take much longer then it should."

Jimmy looks around the lab, "Hey why don't you two stand in front of that." He points to the covered thing on the work bench, "And I will take your picture for the paper."

"No." John raises his voice a little, "That's not a good spot." What ever is there John is protective of it. "How about the Iron Works sign?"

Jimmy nods, "Okay that's fine." He waits for John and Natasha to get into the picture and then he snaps it. "Thank you."

John looks at Lois, "You know what Miss Lane why don't we have Jimmy here talk to Natasha up stairs. She knows everything I know."

"Yeah that's fine. Well Jimmy looks like you're a reporter today. We can share the credit."

"Thank you Lois." Jimmy is very happy about this development. Natasha however looks less then pleased.

"Go on Nat, tell your Grandma these two will be here for a while. I'm sure she already started baking knowing her."

Natasha sighs, "Fine, come on lets go." Natasha leads Jimmy out of the basement and Lois and John are left alone.

John walks over to his office, "Come on Lois, the blue prints for the Mark five walkers as are in here."

Lois stops in front of John's work bench and peeks under the tarp. She sees a glance of a shinny gray shell almost human in design. "Hum," Lois's natural curiosity makes her lean forward to take a closer look and John Irons grabs her by the shoulder.

John pulls her away, "Miss Lane I am entitled to my privacy. Please do not look at that."

"What do you have under there anyway? You're not making weapons are you?"

"I am out of the weapon business Lois. Nothing I make will be used to kill again. What I have there is for protection not war." He leads Lois into his office and then closes the door, "Please drop it."

While Lois would like nothing more then to keep digging into his secrets she respects John as a friend, "Consider it dropped." She looks at John's desk, there the blue prints for the Luthor Weaponry Walker is rolled out. "Interesting." She picks up the blue print and looks it over.

"You have seen walker blue prints before right?"

"Yes the mark one though four blue prints are available at the city archives. As for the mark Five? Can't say I have."

"It's mostly the same. As you know they attempted to use alternative fuel sources with the mark three but they, or should I way we had trouble getting it to function properly."

Lois nods, "Yes from what you, Officer Grimes and my other tech sources have told me. Which leads me to believe that who ever stole the walkers does not have access to the mark five's power source. That tells me that the Mark Five unit's back up source is not electric like with the three and four."

"Right. Now Lois remember what I told you about the development for the Mark Three. Our plan was to make electrical energy the main power source not the back up but we couldn't. The Mark Three's were rushed. I have a theory that who ever leaked the information wanted the mark three units to be taken." John has told Lois this before. He still has sources in Lex Corp.

"I remember John."

"The mark four walkers are pretty much our plan for the mark three only fully realized. That is what the SCU and other special police task forces use. They use less gas but are still quite frankly gas eating monstrosities. That was fixed with the mark five. They are powered by newly developed radioactive power sources. What do you know of the Utron power packs?"

"The Uranium based batteries developed by STAR Labs that safely store the energy, and could in theory power up a third of Metropolis for a month at the cost it takes to fill my car twice? Just that."

"Right well Lex sees that as the future. He wanted those power packs to power his Walkers. You might not know this Lois, Lex Corp has developed their own power packs, two types. The regular Utron batteries and one using a safer radioactive power source that has a higher output. The K material."

Lois knew of the K material, kryptonite, which was discovered by Nathaniel Tourp but from her understanding that material was in too limited quantities to be useful. "Wait Lex Corp has enough kryptonite for that?"

John nods solely, "Yes they do. They have five kryptonite power batteries, two are in active use and three are in reserve. You can't release that information." There is fear in John's eyes as he says that. His voice warns Lois that this information got out his life and the lives of everyone he knows would be in danger.

"Anyway the mark five units main power source is a Uranium power battery located here." He points to a part of the blue print, near the back.

"I see."

"Now the stored units would not have Utron power packs installed. Their legs and basic functions can be powered by gasoline and those mark fives were being shipped out the next morning so the legs were fueled. That's why the thieves was able to just walk out with them."

"So Intergang has useless weapons? That's good." As far as Lois is concerned no one else but Intergang could be responsible.

"No it's not." He shakes his head, "They are useless, Intergang can't use them or sell them with out the power pack. If they sold them on the black market who ever bought them would have to some how get the power source. However this is not good because it means Intergang will have to steal the packs. They won't accept such a loss, not when they can turn it into a win. Breaking into a storage facility filled with radioactive compounds is never a good thing."

Lois nods. As an investigative journalist she took notes in her head and already though of the next possible step. She has some ideas what Intergang will do next. Her right hand flies into the air and she points up, "Ah hah" She smiles at john "Well I know they have to rob ether STAR labs or Lex Corp. Now I would put my money on STAR Labs. I don't see Bruno Mannheim risking a second strike on Lex Corp. He is not that stupid. That answers one Question, why are they kidnapping scientists and engineers?"

John moves his eyes to the blue print again and taps it with his fingers. "Intergang does not have the Blue Prints. They don't know what the main power source is and even if they do they don't know how to install it safely. So they are kidnapping people who understand the walkers to get them to work. Luckily the scientists they have kidnapped so far are not very important. If they went after myself, or Dr. Vale, Dr. De'veirs, or Dr. Neilla Marsh well that would be a problem." When he said the last name Lois's face fills with dread. John senses how she feels, "Ah Oh what did I say?"

Lois groans she was hoping Dr. Marsh was not important, not that important anyway. "You have not watched the news I take it?"

"What happened?"

"Neilla Marsh was kidnapped from her home this morning, by Intergang."

John looks down and frowns, "Her big job for the walker project and the LWM was the machines power source. She worked under Professor Tourp to get the radioactive power batteries properly designed for the machines. She use to work for STAR labs, she was part of the team that developed the With her Intergang knows everything they need."

Neilla Marsh woke up in strange place, she was in a comfortable bed and her surroundings looked more like a five star hotel then a prison yet it felt wrong. She should not be here. Her head is buzzing and her memory is fuzzy. She does not know what time it is or where she is. "Wha?" She looks around, there is clothing in her size on the chair next to the bed. "Where am I?" She says to herself as she stretches and gets out of bed slowly. She remembers going to sleep that night at around midnight after working on some calculations for the Metallo suit. Lex Luthor has been working the LWM team on a tight schedule lately to complete the adjustments to the weapon.

"What happened last night?"

As her memory of last night is trying to catch up to her she walks over to the clothes. On the chair is a nice blue shirt and a dark jean skirt, her size and of good taste, something she would wear. Who ever set this out for her knows her. There is a note attached to the shirt. She shivers in fear, "I was abducted? Was I raped?" Yet while that fear is there she does not feel like she was violated, she does not hurt down there. No she is wearing the same clothes she went to sleep in and they are undisturbed. No it is something worse then that. A fragment of her memory from last night returns to her in an instant.

_"Intergang requires your expertise."_

It was then that everything from the night before returned to her. "They stole the mark five walkers." That's the only reason Intergang would have for kidnapping scientists and engineers. They must have been after her for a while, they must have been watching her. "Well they have good taste." She mutters as she takes one more look at her room, for a prison cell it sure is nice, she even has her own bathroom and kitchen area. Finally Neilla picks up the note, it is written by a refined, intelligent hand.

_'Dr. Neilla Marsh I apologize for what my men had to do to bring you here. If there was another way to recruit you I would have done so. Such underhanded means are beneath a man of my stature. _(Neilla knows that Bruno Mannheim thinks of himself as a gentleman criminal even though he is a big brute with a short temper.)_ I want to insure you that you are not a prisoner here, you are my valued guest. I would like to meet with you for breakfast after you shower and get dressed, there I will discuss business. It is in your best interest to work with us for you would not like things to get ugly.'_

Neilla laughs, this is the sort of these she sees in a bad crime novel not real life. "Not a prisoner huh? Yeah right." Still it's not like she has much of a choice. She knows that if she does not at least see what Mannheim wants that she is as good as dead. She picks up the clothes and walks into the bathroom closing the door behind her.

Fifteen minutes later she walks out of the bathroom cleaned up and dressed. The shirt and skirt are modest and professional and that makes her happy. She is glad Mannheim did not follow the cliche of giving his high ranking prisoner a fancy dress for their first meeting. She has cleaned up nicely, she did not apply make up despite there being a whole cabinet full in the bath room. She is a hansom woman as it is. Neilla walks over to the door and walks out, she was surprised that the door was not locked. What did not surprise her was that here were guards on the other side, "Not a prisoner huh?" She mutters to herself.

The guards do not seem to hear it or they just shrug it off. They are not masked like the ones that broke into her house but they look like your average gangster types. One is an older man with cold blue eyes and graying blond hair. He is a tall man with a slight beer gut, "Ah-ha Dr. Marsh." He says with a thick Italian accent, "It is about time you have woke. Mr. Mannheim has been waiting for you for two hours now. He is getting impatient."

The other man nods in agreement. he is larger then the first guard but shorter, with fiery red hair that looks to be unnatural and dark brown eyes that look almost black. He speaks with an intimidating low voice with a slight southern accent, "Ugly's patience only goes too far. He won't wait for ever."

Neilla tries to respond when the men grab her, "No we don't have time." The Italian man says walking fast. He forces Neilla to with him, "You have to meet with Mr. Mannheim now."

"Hey wait." She is shocked, she is almost running so that she does not trip and fall. This man is in a hurry and there is fear in his voice. She looks at the short man who is not saying a word. He is walking behind Neilla and the Italian. Neilla forces herself to maintain balance she does not want to be dragged, she has her dignity. She is in what looks like a five star hotel, yet all the people she sees are goons in expensive suits, they are a bunch of cliches right out of a gangster movie. This place has to be one of Intergang's headquarters. Neilla is lead down the hallway though a beautifully decorated corridor and she is lead to large double doors. The Italian man opens the doors and then walks leading Neilla behind him.

The dining room is just as extravagant as the rest of the building. The room seems to be half the size of a football field with doors leading from where she came and another pair on the far side leading to the kitchen. The walls are clean and there is silver and gold etchings over them, and crystal chandeliers hang overhead. There is a heavy looking masterfully crafted large table in the middle of the room, the table is long enough to cover three fourths of the room and there are enough chairs at the table for about seventy five people. The table is set for breakfast, there is a bunch of fruit on the table, eggs made in a verity of different ways from sunny side up to scrambled, there are different types of meats all set up. There are waffles, pancakes, french toast and everything that could make anyone's mouth's water.

While there are about twenty people in the room only two people are sitting and eating, the other eighteen are all people like the Italian and the Southerner who lead Neilla here, goons. There is a large man in a nicely tailored green suit siting at the far end of the table. Even before Neilla sees his face she is intimidated by him. There is a presence to him. He looks up at her, the first thing she sees is the deep nasty scar that goes from just below his eye to right side of his lip. He smiles at her with clean white teeth, "Ah Dr. Marsh I am so glad you could make it. I hope you are not hurt."

"No I'm fine." She says. The Italian man walks her close to Bruno Mannheim and takes out a chair for her, he then pushes her down.

"Be gentle with her, Dr. Marsh is a valued guest." Bruno says looking at them with cold eyes. He then watches as she sits, there is a plate of food that was set for her, "You are very valued Dr. Marsh and I am so glad you could make it."

Neilla does not answer him, he is trying to make her feel wanted but she is a prisoner here. She knows that she is only alive as long as she has a purpose. She looks at her food, while she does not want to eat out of spite her stomach starts to growl, she is very hungry. However she can't show Bruno and his guest that. Neilla starts eating slowly.

Siting at the table with Bruno is a tall woman with red hair in a tight green dress, her eyes match the color of the dress. She is silent and lets Bruno do all the talking but she has an air of authority to her, like she might be higher up then Bruno.

Bruno does takes a bite of a blueberry pancake that is dripping with syrup and then smiles at Neilla, "You know why you were brought here Dr. Marsh. You know that Intergang requires your expertise. We have required some equipment that you are familiar with. My highly skilled engineers can't figure out how to make them work."

Neilla swallows her food, why else would she be brought here, "The mark five walkers. You guys stole them."

"They came into our possession." He says with a nod.

"And you require my help?"

"Yes." Bruno says quietly, "Given my profession it's not like I could just ask for your help you see." For a large brute Bruno knows to be a gentleman, it is how he came to power. "We have attempted to get the walkers working on our own but that power source, it's a problem. You see it would be bad for business if we leak radiation in Metropolis. Now while my men could get the walkers working eventually you see in my profession, much like yours, time is money."

"I see. So you choose me. I should feel special."

"You should. It's not like your important to Lex Luthor." Bruno says cocky tone. "To him your just a scientist, I mean he fired so many like you in these last months. One screw up and your done. That's cold."

Neilla laughs, the heartless gangster is calling Lex Luthor cold. "You would not do that?"

"No Dr. Marsh, Intergang is a family, we respect our family. I see you as an important part of the family. I am offering you a job."

"An offer?" Neilla knows there is no offer.

"Indeed. I want you to lead the team to get the Walkers operational. We have a couple power packs that we acquired though my sources at STAR labs. I would like you to get them properly installed and teach my tech team how to do it. I would like you to lead Intergang's tech team. We can offer you more then Luthor can."

"Can you now?" Neilla looks over at the red head, all that woman is doing is watching her and Bruno. She seems to be taking notes of their conversation in her head. "Who is that?"

"I am not important." The woman says in a soft feminine voice.

"That is Whisper. You will understand her role soon enough. So Dr. Marsh what do you say?"

Neilla wipes her face off with a napkin, "Like I have a choice?"

"Everyone has a choice." Bruno tells her. "What would the world be like if you did not have a choice? I think it would be a dull place." Bruno stands, "You could walk away and no harm will come to you unless you are close by when those machines malfunction. Could you trust my men to install the power source correctly on their own? What if they install the power packs wrong? Things could get ugly. Could you have that on your conscience Dr. Marsh?" Bruno walks over to Whisper and offers her a hand.

As Bruno helps Whisper up and kisses her in the hand Neilla shakes her head. Who is this guy trying to fool? She knows enough about Bruno Mannheim to know he is a cruel and brutal sociopath, he pretends to he refined and a gentleman but once he does not get his way way he uses force. He has clearly told her that she has no choice but has not said those exact words. "Fine."

Whisper well whispers into Bruno's ears and the man smiles, it is a creepy smile, "Ah yes there is that." he looks at Neilla, "That is great Dr. Marsh."

"May I say something." Whisper asks kindly.

"Oh course my dear."

Whisper moves over to Neilla in a graceful manner, "That was a smart move my dear. You see we know about you. Bruno did not want you to know this, he's too nice but do you know what would have happened if you refused? What will happen if you are non complaint later?" The woman's sweet voice has a bitter taste to it like a poorly disguised poison.

"What?" She is glad she ate because suddenly Neilla's appetite is gone.

"Oh your mother and father in Florida, your brother in Central City with his wife and kids. Lets just say that their welfare depends on you." Whisper's eyes seem to shimmer as she walks, her iris seems to become slit like a snakes. Neilla sees her tongue for a second and if she did not know better she would think it looked like a snakes. "Their health depends on your compliance."

"I..." Neilla gulps, "I will work for you to the best of my abilities." She stands up and almost falls to the ground but Whisper grabs her and pulls her to her feet. Neilla moves away from the strange woman.

"Good." Whisper says as she walks gracefully toward Bruno.

Bruno shakes his head, "Sorry about that Dr. Marsh, that is not how I would have done things. Whisper likes to intimidate and get to the point. Now would you like to see the lab? I would like the team to fill you in so that we can be ready for the next phase of the plan. You see the Walkers are still useless to Intergang and we can't have that."

Neilla Marsh realizes she has no choice, her family's lives depend on her cooperation. She knows that while she may never leave this place alive at least the one's she love will live so long as she does what Intergang wants. "Fine show me to the lab."


	9. A prank at the harber

(Notes: this is a short chapter because it takes place before the flash back. I figured I needed to introduce Milton Fine before the flashback chapter so it did not seem as forced.)

The Men who look down on the world

Chapter Eight

"This is a waste of time." Mercy Graves mutters to herself. She does not know how Lex managed to talk her into this job. How was she talked into going with Kent Luthor to meet up with five released criminals at the marina? "Anyone could have done this job."

Kent shakes his head as he walks down the marina to the gated and fenced entrance to the Strykers Island dock. The boat is not in port yet but Kent can see it though the fog using his Kryptonian eye sight. "I like to be there to help." He says.

"You would." Mercy does not like Kent's savior act, the man is an idealist who sees the best in everyone and truly wants to help. Normally she thinks people like him are full of crap but not Kent and to Mercy that makes it worse. Mercy Graves knows how to read people, it was part of her CIA spy training. Kent is the only person who has never lied to her and she hates him for it. Something is not right about Kent Luthor. "Still do you need to be here every time?"

It was a good question, as Kent Luthor does show up to the docks every time a ship from Strykers Island Penitentiary makes it's way to the dock with prisoners set to be released. Okay he shows up when one or two of those criminals are being released via the Luthor Criminal Rehabilitation program. "These men are going to be the newest employees of Luthor Media. I like to greet new employees personally."

Mercy gags under her breath, the way Kent talks is sickeningly pure and unnatural. She often thinks to her self 'How can this man be Lex's brother?' Kent and Lex could not be more different from each other. "You can do what ever you want Mr. Luthor but is it safe? They are criminals?"

"They are criminals who have done their time and have earned a second chance. My father created the criminal rehabilitation project so that people can have a new life. So that they can make up for their mistakes and live their lives as free men contributing to the community." In reality Lionel Luthor started the program as a tax write off and really let it fall to pieces. He did not care what criminals were accepted and what talents they had. It was Kent who saw the true potential of the program.

Mercy smiles but it is a sinister smirk, Lex sees the program the same way Kent does only for different reasons. Now Mercy can get behind Lex's goals. Lex sees the rehabilitation program as an endless supply of talent he can get his hands on. There are countless criminals in Strykers and other prisons across the country with various skills that Lex can exploit. Giving these people a second chance is not important, using their talents is. Milton Fine is a prime example. Fine is a brilliant computer programer who using the name "The Computer Tyrant" took over Metropolis entire computer grid and held the city hostage. He was only stopped thanks to Superman otherwise he probably would have gotten billions in digital funds. "That is what Lex sees in the project too."

"I know I can't tell you how happy I was when Lex expressed interest in the project." Though some of Lex's choices are strange to Kent, Some of the people Lex released for the program are murderers. Still Kent believes Lex had the best intentions in mind. Still Milton Fine is a strange choice. "I'm surprise Lex would give Dr. Fine a chance, I mean that man has a grudge against Lex."

"That grudge is against your father." Mercy say coldly. "Your father was still in CEO back then. He was the one who ultimately rejected Fine's offer and bought out Fine IntellaSoft from underneath him."

"Yes but Dr. Fine announced his revenge against everyone who was responsible for his downfall, including everyone with the last name Luthor. Strykers Island had explicit orders to keep him away computers and anything he could hack into and now Lex plans to release him as a computer consultant? It seems risky to me."

"Your brother is all about risks Mr. Luthor." Mercy says shaking her head, "You know that."

Kent nods his head, yes he does. Lex clearly offered Fine something he wanted. Lex knows how to get what he wants. "Well I hope Lex knows what he is doing."

"Lex always knows what he is doing." That is why Mercy works for Lex, he is a man with a vision who always gets what he wants. He wanted her on his side to give her life for him and Mercy respects him for it. Lex Luthor is the only man who has managed to intimidate her, he is the only man she will ever work for.

The boat from the prison island slowly moves out of the fog bank as it drifts closer to the shore. At first the ship seems normal, the lights are still on, the engine is moving steady. To Mercy and Kent the movement seems normal. Then as the ship is suppose to steer closer to the prison transfer dock but it's starting to turn away. "Something is wrong." Kent mutters.

"What?" Mercy says looking at Kent.

"The ship it's moving away from the dock."

Mercy looks at the ship closely, "You're right Mr. Luthor." She takes out her radio she was given by the prison staff stationed at the Marina, "Is there something wrong with the ship?"

There is static and then an answer comes in, "Yes, we had a call from the ship, the prisoners took it over, killed the captain and crew and then communication went dead. Police are on their way stay calm."

Mercy looks a little panicked, well it's as panicked as she gets but she still looks perfectly calm. "Okay Mr. Luthor I have to get you to the limo." She says as she turns around to look at Kent, however he is done. "Kent?" She never uses Kent Luthor's first name so she is worried. She thinks for a second and stays calm, Kent Luthor is a wuss he probably returned to the limo or found a bathroom to hide in, Kent always runs in the first sign of trouble, another reason she likes Lex, Lex Luthor is afraid of nothing. "Sigh maybe he's at the car." She mutters heading off to look for Kent but not caring if she actually finds him.

Kent Luthor sped off the moment he overheard the radio conversation. He quickly slipped into the nearest bathroom and quickly changed into Superman in a flash. In a blur of red and blue he is outside again and above the boat, "Lets see what we got here." Using his x ray vision Superman looks into the boat. He sees five prisoners with guns holding the living crew and the the prisoners hostage. Laying on the floor near the bridge is the body of three guards and the captain. Behind the wheel of the ship is another criminal, one Superman knows, he has a cold smile on his face and is laughing, "Prankster."

Oswald Loomis aka the Prankster, he was being transferred from Strykers to Arkham Asylum after his latest psych report came back, that and he killed two prisoners when he was working in the cafeteria and gave three others third degree burns when he threw a boiling pot of chili in their face. His reason, "They laughed at me not with me."

Prankster is mostly harmless and Superman could take him out in a second, same with the other five prisoners. Superman takes a closer look at the five with the guns and sighs in relief when none of them are the ex-cons who are part of the rehabilitation project. It would hurt the project's reputation if something like that happened. Even Milton Fine is just sitting there scared. Two of the five criminals holding up the ship were being released today while the other three were being transferred to other prisons.

Also Superman sees that the Prankster has a switch in his hand, there are bombs all over the ship and the Prankster plans to take everyone out with him, using his super-hearing he can overhear Loomis muttering to himself, "I am not like those freaks, no no you are not sending me there. I am sane and I will show you all even if I have to kill us all."

How was Loomis able to get these other hardened criminals to follow him? Loomis clearly has a death wish right now and is insane, something is wrong with him. "Loomis was never that bad before, he was just a little wacky."

Superman knows what he must do, he makes sure all of the bombs are placed on the outside of the ship, which three of the five are and then quickly removes those bombs and disposes of them safely. He then uses his super speed to grab the bomb at the rear of the boat destroying it with a tight grasp. The final bomb is in the captain's control room with Loomis. Superman flies over there and picks up the bomb, "Hi Oswald." He says as he throws the bomb up and down.

The Prankster twists his head around at Superman, "YOU." He says with a whinny voice, "This is all your fault. You are the reason they are sending me to that mad house." He holds tightly onto the bomb switch his finger twitching over the red button.

"Always blaming others for your problems Loomis, never yourself. Think about it Oswald, do you want this?"

"Yes." He presses the button and nothing happens, he presses it again and again, "Nooo, no why won't it blow? Why won't it blow?"

Superman coughs, "Ah hum." He smiles throwing the disarmed bomb up one more time and then throws it at Loomis feet, "Me." Superman moves over to Loomis and grabs him by the collar of his prison garb, "Now come quietly."

Loomis smiles and shakes his head, "Not my style." He slips under his prison jump suit and is wearing a striped green and orange suit underneath, he holds in his hand a bottle of water, "I don't give up Super Duper Pooper." He sprays the water at Superman.

Superman just stands there and laughs, "What was that Loomis? I mean really spraying me with water? That's weak even for you."

His smile fades, "Even your eyes are super! That's prison chill powder mixed in that water. Your eyes should have been irritated long enough for me to escape." He drops to his knees, that was his back up plan because he did not expect the bombs to fail. "I don't want to do to that mad house. I don't wanna."

Superman grabs Loomis again, the Prankster is a joke. He's quite smart as he was able to construct bombs in prison some how but he's no match for Superman. Walking over to the door of the ship to the main area Superman opens the door and throws Loomis at the feet of the other convicts. "Your escape failed, blame him."

A large tattooed man looks at Loomis and then Superman, "We still have the guards, the other prisoners and the guns. So what if you stopped the Jokester."

"That's Prankster." Loomis mutters under his breath.

"Who cares." The large man kicks Loomis in the back. "Ali Sterling is not being sent to Bell Reve."

"I see." Superman shakes his head, "Now I am fast enough to stop you from killing anyone even in this confined space. You know that." Superman knows that if they want to live and they know the situation is hopeless most criminals will give up. As long as they are not nuts like Loomis here. "You can try to fight back anyway or you can just drop your weapons." Superman looks at the other four armed criminals, all who look scared. Clearly Ali is in control here and they are following him.

One of them, a large black man with a shaved head drops his weapon and sits, he has ran into Superman before and knows how hopeless the situation is, "I want no trouble man."

"Louie really?" Ali looks surprised. "The boy scout has you spooked?"

"He can stop us at any time. Superman likes to play around." Louie mutters.

"Can he?" Ali points his gun at Superman, "Then do it, stop us."

Superman is gone, he moved so fast the people in the boat did not see him. In a fraction of a second the guns are out of Ali and the other convicts hands and in a pile on the floor. Then they are chained up securely locked. "How's that?"

"See, that is why I told you you if I see Superman I'm out. I was not being a wuss I was being realistic." Louie says smiling.

"Shut up you wuss." Ali snarls at him not caring that he's locked up, "You better hope I never see you at Bell Reve."

Superman looks at Louie, the man does look slightly familiar Superman deals with so many criminals every day that their faces tend to get lost in rotation. This man has some common sense he has to be looked into maybe he can be reformed. Now that the criminals are captured again Superman frees the guards and staff of the boat, "Can anyone pilot this boat?"

The crew shake their heads, "The captain and co captain are dead, they are the only ones."

"That's no problem. I got this." Superman flies out of the boat and dives into the water. He then sets his hands down on the bottom of the boat and lifts up. The Boat lifts up into the air and he flies it over to the docks. He then sets in down where armed guards are waiting. Superman still wait with salt water looks over at the guards, "There are six dead, the captain, co captain and three guards and a prisoner. The rest of the guards will fill you in with who was responsible." Superman then flies off before they could respond to him and give him their thanks.

Mercy was waiting from the shore as the incident unfolded. She was let into the prison docks thanks to her authority in Lex Corp and was talking to the guards. "Seems Superman has the situation underc control and just left." One of the guards tells her.

"Superman huh?" Mercy scoffs, she is not a fan of Superman. She walks over to the gate and looks out, she sees someone walk out of the wash room and look around at his surrounding. The man has a confused look on his face. Mercy has a cold smile on her face, "He hid in the bathroom? Man is he pathetic." She then calls out, "Kent."

Kent Luthor walks over to the gate, "What's going on? Is the conflict over?"

"Yes." Mercy says as a guard opens the gate to let Kent Luthor in. "The guards are dealing with the criminals right now. The people for the rehabilitation program are being interviewed first and then will be released in our custody." Mercy is happy Kent shown up when he did she does not want to deal with any ex con but Milton Fine, the one she has to deal with.

"I saw the boat lift in the air at the end. Did I miss Superman." Kent says with interested voice.

Mercy frowns, of course Kent would be a fan of Superman, they are both boyscouts who are too good to be true. "It was not much. Everything is so easy for Superman. He's boring to watch."

"Yeah but he makes Metropolis safe, isn't that worth something?"

"He makes people soft." Mercy says again. She really does not want to get into this again, she is trying to get away, "Let's focus Kent, here come our criminals."

"That is not how we should look at them. They are trying to make a better life for themselves."

"They are criminals." Criminals with useful talents like Milton Fine there but criminals non the less. Frankly if Lex did not have use for him Mercy would rather see him dead. She still remembers how be brought chaos to metropolis less then a year ago.

Milton Fine is walking behind a couple armed guards and there is a third guard behind him. There are three other released criminals, the ones Kent came for right behind him. These guys are just going to be janitors and file clerks in low positions at Luthor Media. Kent thinks small. Now Lex thinks big, Milton Fine has special talents and he knows it. Even in prison orange he walks with dignity his head is held high with a face too good looking for a computer geek. He has light green eyes and light yellow hair. Milton is a tall man and well built. He sees Mercy and smiles, "You are as stunning as ever Ms. Graves. I am so glad Lex sent you to retrieve me. It was a surprise offer I might add. I am intrigued to see what job Lex has for me."

The guards release Fine into Mercy's custody who nods, "Thanks." She glances at Fine and then looks away, "The job Lex has for you is worthy of your unique skills."

Kent offers Fine his hand, "I am Kent Luthor."

Milton Fine shakes Kents hand, "Charmed Mr. Luthor." There is a tint of hatred in his voice that is well hidden. His feelings toward the Luthor family is pretty negative. He does not care about Kent Luthor one way or the other, the man does not even deal with computers. It's Lex who has a deal for him and it's Lex he has a special hatred for. He loves that Lex Luthor is stupid enough to give him a chance to extract a personal revenge on him. Sure it was Lionel that ruined Milton Fine's life but Lex was part of the board of directors that destroyed his company and he will stop at nothing to destroy Luthor Corp. What Lex is offering him will make his revenge so much easier. Miles looks away from Kent removing his arm, "We should get going." He says to Mercy.

"Yes." Mercy walks out of the gate with Milton Fine following her. "Lex is not one we should keep waiting." She starts to head over to the parking lot then stops. She turns around to the gate where Kent is dealing with the other released convicts, "Mr. Luthor if you and those men do not hurry I will leave you. I was told to take you with but Lex gave me no order to drop you and them off at Luthor Media. So the offer is for a limited time only."

"Sorry sorry." Kent smiles and winks then leads his men over to Mercy. "Please don't leave us."


End file.
